Sports Hall of Fame - Raelee Thompson

But to do it overseas was even better.

“You become very patriotic, I know that much,” Thompson said.

“It’s enthralling, thrilling, it’s something you can’t describe sometimes.”

Representing Australia in 16 Tests and 23 international one-day matches from 1972 to 1985, there is little doubt Thompson deserves her spot in the Greater Shepparton Sports Hall of Fame.

“For it to be your own town, born and bred, for them to recognise you is very humbling,” Thompson said.

“It's an honour and, even though I haven’t lived there for quite a while, I still think of myself as a Shepparton girl.”

A mad sportsperson growing up, Thompson said "if there was something going, I’d be in it,” with some of her favourites being volleyball, softball and netball.

But it wasn’t until Form 4 at Shepparton High where Thompson took up the game that would eventually capture her heart.

“Before then we played vigoro, but you couldn’t go anywhere with that, so cricket was introduced by the then-sports mistress, Patty Beckwith,” Thompson said.

“Because if you played cricket there was Victorian and Australian teams.

“I loved playing it, so when it came in I was over the moon.”

Moving to Melbourne in 1966 at 21, Thompson found herself taking those first steps towards state and, later, national, selections.

“I was introduced to a lady, Dawn Rae, who played with Collingwood,” she said.

“She’d played in Victorian teams, so that’s how I started; I went to Collingwood and away I went.

“It was only a matter of about three years until I was playing in Vic seconds. That was my start.”

Making the Victorian team with best friends Margaret Jennings and Lorraine Hill, Thompson then made the leap to the Australian team alongside Jennings in 1972.

Hill made her way into the side a year later, with all three heading off to England in 1973 for the first World Cup.

“It was rather fruitless because we didn’t win,” Thompson said.

“But we made up for it in the years since.

“The time I was playing, Australia won lots of things and so did the Victorians; it was a really successful era.”

But it was the friendships made that had more of an impact on Thompson compared to wins and losses.

“It’s your teammates, particularly as I had very close friends in the same team,” she said.

“And it’s the people you meet. We went to 10 Downing Street, and I remember looking up at all the past prime ministers. And we met Virginia Wade, Ray Illingworth and Richard Bannister, that in itself is thrilling.”

For 13 years Thompson played in the Australian Test team before finally getting a captain's call-up in her last series.

“Captaining the side in a Test, it probably wasn’t something I wanted at the time,” she said.

“I was the more experienced person, so I grabbed the opportunity and we won the series.”

Tied 1-1 against England, the final Test of the series would later go on to become Thompson's career highlight.

Played at Queen Elizabeth Oval in Bendigo, Thompson took 5-33 with the ball on opening day to set up the 2-1 series win.

“It was close to home (Shepparton), for one,” Thompson said.

“My father Lindsay got to see me play, for two; I don’t think he’d ever come and seen me play because he was in Shepparton.

“And it was the winning Test of the series and I was captain of it.”

Following her time in the national team, Thompson went back to club cricket for another decade, while also serving as an Australian selector and delegate to the cricket council.

Continuing her time in the sport to this day at Essendon Maribyrnong Park (EMP), Thompson, alongside Jennings and Hill, remain keen onlookers at games, while also coaching several up-and-coming players at the club.

“We have a few Victorian and Australian players at EMP, so now and again we help them out,” she said.

But for those players, Thompson believes the sport is very different now to what she and her teammates experienced.

“I was talking to Hilly about this the other week; we used to fly cattle class, we stayed with two or three to a hotel room and we had to pay for everything,” she said.

“Now days there are people for everything; coaches, a doctor, a dietitian, fitness conditioning, media.

“All we had was a manageress. We didn’t have a coach until the mid ‘80s, so it was the captain who did all the organising of training, the tactics.

“Then there is the money, they get paid now.

“Back then we would have been out of pocket nearly the same amount going the other way.”

But while there is all the added professionalism to the sport nowadays, along with the ability to earn a living, Thompson admits she still would have preferred to play in her own day.

“There was pleasure and achievement and things gained in our days even without all the trimmings,” she said.

And without any level of coaching, Thompson said it was “personal pride” that meant players kept striving to improve their game.

“It was your own initiative,” she said.

“We’d do extra things in the days where there was no extra practices and fitness.

“You just trained in the winter and I admit I hated running, but Hilly loved it, so she would come by and round up Marg and I and say we’re going running after work.

“Or else, if it was later in winter, we could go over to the park and have catching practice.”

It was this which means Thompson and her teammates are now comprehending their true standing as trailblazers in the sport, which has now hit global levels of popularity.

“We do feel that; we were trailblazers and proud of it,” she said.

“We used to set a standard and had self-control; we’d go to bed early and didn’t drink.

“We didn’t have to be told by anyone to do it.

“We just knew that was the way you play good cricket.

“We wanted to do our best and be the best.”