Charmaine made her first class debut for Victoria in 1989/90 where she began to form a lethal combination of speed with opening bowler partner Cathryn Fitzpatrick. They were the perfect foil: Fiztpatrick’s raw pace was complemented by Mason's bag of tricks and pace. Not only did they cause havoc and terrorise the other Australian states, but before long became a much heralded pace attack in both Tests and ODIs.
Mason made her Australia Test debut in 1990/91 against England at North Sydney Oval. Her first wicket, the England captain, Helen Plimmer. Her next one, former England captain, Carole Hodges. She collected 4-40 and 3-39 to complete an excellent debut with the ball. In five Test matches Mason had one innings, 0*. More importantly, 13 Test wickets at 26.07.
A debut in ODIs came in 1996/7 and it is in this format where Mason really excelled. (Not with the bat) In 46 matches, 83 wickets at the miserly rate of just 13.85, an economy of 2.91 (Still World Class to this day) and best performance of 5-9. Charmaine Mason was also part of the World Cup winning team in 1997.
With many years still left in her career, Charmaine retired from cricket unexpectedly in 2001 at age 31 to further her career away from sport. She has resided in the United Kingdom since 2001.
