Ellyse Perry responds to Indian cricketer's 'beautiful' comments

Ellyse Perry has responded to comments from Murali Vijay that he finds her beautiful and would love to have dinner with her.

The Indian cricketer caused a stir last month when he said Perry was one of two people he’d invite to dinner out of anyone he could choose.

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There were no surprises when he picked teammate and friend Shikhar Dhawan, but his pick of Perry came as a huge shock.

“Ellyse Perry. I want to have dinner with her. She is so beautiful,” he said in an interview held by his IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings.

“And Shikhar Dhawan any day. He is a fun guy. Just that he will speak Hindi and I will be conversing in Tamil.”

Perry has since responded in typically classy fashion, making light of the comments.

“I hope he’s paying,” Perry said during an Instagram Live session with Indian TV presenter Ridhima Pathak.

The 29-year-old said that was the first she’d heard of Vijay’s comments but she was flattered.

“That’s very kind of him,” she added.

Unfortunately for Vijay, Perry married Wallabies star Matt Toomua in 2015.

Ellyse Perry speaks on coronavirus crisis

Perry says women's sports could emerge from the coronavirus better off, as different codes try to extend their reach and find new revenue streams.

Perry has returned to Melbourne to continue her recovery from the hamstring injury that ruled her out of Australia's World Cup success in front of 86,174 fans at the MCG.

That night was meant to be a watershed moment for women's sport both in the country and around the entire cricket globe.

However there have been fears that momentum has stalled, particularly as all sporting organisations at home and abroad take a significant financial hit.

But Perry argued that women's codes had to be as important now as ever for organisations when the games resume.

“Sport in general is resilient and I can't actually see it having a long-lasting negative effect,” Perry told AAP.

“It's certainly made organisations rethink how they run their sports and their codes and potentially strip it back to what is really important.

“That's not necessarily a bad thing. I don't think it's going to affect women's sport.

“It's become so apparent that if you want all your population engaging in your code you need to engage all the population.

“And part of that is having women's involvement.

“It's still very much an area for growth and that might be even more apparent after coronavirus because codes are going to have to keep finding new revenue streams.”

Perry also believed Australian women's cricket can again lead the way.

with AAP