In 2004, when it launched the first of what was intended to be recurring five-year plans, the priorities were to establish the Australian men's team as the country's favourite in any sport, and for men's and women's teams to be ranked No.1 in all three forms.

There was less emphasis on women and juniors, and none at all on the Big Bash League, mainly because it didn't exist then.

The tumble of events since prompted some hasty revisions, and on Thursday the release of another five-year plan, with a very different thrust. There is nothing about endearing the men's team to the nation - too hard? - and only in the finer print an imperative to dominate in all forms, by both - all? - genders.

Now it is all about women and juniors and milking the Big Bash League for all it is worth, which is ever growing. The Ashes, world cups and the Indian frontier are givens, but the explicit focus is the 2020 World Twenty20 tournament, which Australia will host, and the leverage it will provide.

"In particular, we will be placing the emphasis on making cricket the leading sport for women and girls," said CA chief executive James Sutherland, "and delivering the best participation experiences to grow junior cricket."

The reasons are obvious. The hearts and minds of women as players is the "new battleground" in sport, as one official termed it. The evidence is all around. Grassroots, including by implication juniors, is one arena in which all sports fear they are losing ground to the AFL, ever rapacious or ever voracious, depending on your point of view.

Grassroots were at least the notional cause championed by both sides in the recent, bitter pay dispute between CA and the Australian Cricketers Association. Practically, the cricketers won. But CA did end up with a pool of $56 million to devote to grassroots. Spread over the next five years, it will represent an increase of more than 25 per cent on the past five years in CA's investment in grassroots.

Sutherland pressed these themes. "Our recent facilities audit ... found that just 20 per cent [of clubs] have changing rooms that are suitable for women and girls," he said. "It also told us that too many cricket clubs do not have enough practice facilities and that many new communities in our major cities have no sporting facilities at all."

Up the food chain, the new world order is starkly clear. Though the strategic plan's priorities are not necessarily in order, the first reads simply, "Give fans what they want and grow the Big Bash".