A long-lasting Australian golden era could continue for many years, according to a post-Ashes assessment from the new Victorian head of female cricket Sharelle McMahon.

McMahon is arguably Australia's greatest netballer.

She took over as one of the Victorian cricket bosses last August, after quitting coaching positions with Melbourne Vixens and the Diamonds.

"It's been very impressive," she said of the Australians' performance against England.

"What I've really loved about the Ashes is the young payers coming through. That, for me, has been a really exciting part of this series."

McMahon praised Darcie Brown, 18, Annabel Sutherland, 20, and Alana King, 26.

"It can be a tricky thing to come in for your first experience playing international sport and have an impact like that," she said.

"Obviously, the leadership under Meg Lanning has created an environment where these players are coming in and feeling like they have that space to be able to be themselves and perform.

"And it's not always easy, when you talk about those names that have been in that Aussie team for so many years and, no doubt, would've been athletes that these [emerging] players looked up to as they were growing up."

Often champion teams find it hard to find spaces for rising stars.

However, Lanning's Australia team is blooding match-winners while still on top.

"That's the exciting thing and why that interaction between those two generations is really important," McMahon said.

"And it's great to see that happening before our very eyes. To enable that to happen and to see the strength of Australian cricket is really exciting.

She added her voice to calls for women to play more Test matches in the future.

"It does show that women's Test cricket can be a great contest and [a] great spectacle."

Cricket versus netball and other leading sports

McMahon, a two-time world champion, said Australian cricket needed to continue increasing participation numbers at club level to meet the challenges from other nations, including India.

"I think the [cricket] structures that have been put in place around that elite level, when you get up to Australian players and the state programs, I think there's a huge amount of resourcing," she said.

"The reality is, for cricket, that it is a numbers game at the moment. We really want to push forward with trying to build the participation base, which will, hopefully, increase the depth of the talent pool.

"We've seen pretty good numbers in schools, actually, and really good enjoyment and engagement in schools.

"It's just that translation into playing club and association cricket for the girls is a piece of work that were continuing to do."

McMahon has been working closely with Victoria's top-level Premier competition.

"Creating a really good competition at that level will hopefully enable those players who are taking that next step [state and national honours] to be more prepared.

"And the more players we can have involved, the better environment we can create, the better supports we can put around the players as they are coming through, [and] that will only increase the talent base and that's crucial."

She said talented young teenagers were progressing into top, open-age competitions faster than some other sports, including netball.

"It's just that the netball world has been doing it for a lot longer," she said.

"They've been in that professional space from a club [Super Netball] perspective for a little bit longer. So that's a bit different.

"What we're seeing with cricket is that talented young players move up the levels quite quickly and that's probably a point of difference.

"Because of the number of players in those other sports, probably that progression through the pathways is slowed down a little bit."

McMahon noted that talented teenagers were everywhere in city-wide competitions around Australia.

"Some are incredible," she said.

"We've got a 14-year-old bowling over a 100 kilometres an hour. Some of the talent that we're seeing come though is really impressive and we've just gone through the Under 15 Youth Premier League and the Under 18 Premier competition in January.

"And we saw some good performances there. Probably, the general consensus from people involved in that, is now we are seeing each team having two, three, maybe four top-line players, whereas — in years gone by — it might've been one to two per team."

McMahon said "the appetite" for women's cricket was impressive.

"That's one thing I've notice in this role: I'm not having to knock on people's doors," she said.

"People are knocking on my door, asking how can we get involved, what are the things that we need to think about, how can we create something that is a great environment for women and girls to be involved in."

McMahon said what her organisation wanted to see — as women's cricket saw more people, clubs and associations wanting to get involved — was to see that happen "in a sustainable way that can create cricketers who love the sport, who are involved for life".

"Whether that be to provide the opportunity for people who want to go and play for Australia, if they've got that talent, but also [for] the many more people who just want to be involved in cricket and play because it's a great sport to be involved in," she said.

McMahon's cricket passion and experience has been lifelong, extending far beyond her Melbourne Stars ambassadorship.

She grew up in country Victoria watching her father, John, who once played against a touring West Indian side.

Mr McMahon still prepares the pitches for Bamawm Lockington United Cricket Club and has life memberships at other clubs.

"I spent a lot of my childhood at cricket grounds, watching cricket, training and playing in the backyard and all those sort of things," McMahon said.

"It's been a lifelong love of cricket for me."

The Victorian government recently announced a statue would be made to honour Sharelle McMahon outside the John Cain Arena.