Indigenous Aussies look to breakthrough

Date released: 2 July 2009

Only one aboriginal cricketer has represented Australia since their first Test match in 1877, but the current crop are looking to put Indigenous players on the map.

Report by Jack Hyom

An Australian Indigenous XI is touring the UK and having already faced select teams from Kent, Middlesex and the Home Counties League, they played an MCC Combined Universities team in a two-day fixture at Teddington Cricket Ground.

Jason Gillespie at the height of his bowling powers for Australia The burning ambition of the promising young team and their management is to add to the number of players from aboriginal roots to have worn the baggy green cap of Australia. Currently, Jason Gillespie is the only indigenous Australian to have done so.

This is the first tour since 1988 for an indigenous side and, through ten years of hard work on the Indigenous Cricket Programme, National Chairman Vince Copley is pleased with the progress:

"At this stage we feel the tour has made a lot of progress since we played our first game.

"This match [against the Combined UCCE XI] is a big test for us, it’s a completely different type of game from Twenty20 and one day games and it gives us a look at the players and how they react to fielding and batting for a whole day. It will test their concentration and their abilities to keep going."

The side has only three players over 21 and with the young talent on offer, the National Indigenous Programme is working hard to push them all the way to the top.

Copley added: "The bottom line for this is that we hope one or two will wear the baggy green and represent Australia but along the line there are lots of other goals including playing for their district team, state selection and having the opportunity to be selected in an Australia squad.

"We are trying to put in place a proper programme to achieve this. We need to be playing against good sides and international teams.

"And we need to have a continuity of players who will be knocking on the door of the national team in five years time. It won’t be easy."

The management team are looking for Australian dollars as much as results to make people aware of the unrecognised aboriginal talent.

Trevor Woodland, Director of Northern Territory Cricket, said: _"We have got some very talented young players, I think the challenge is marketing these players to the mainstream structure of cricket.

"Ultimately I think we need a couple of players to prove themselves in the first-class arena and once this happens it could break the seal and more indigenous players could be competing at a high level."

The Indigenous XI fieldign against the Combined UCCE XI Despite Rugby League and Australian Rules Football being the most popular sports for the Aboriginal population, an indigenous cricket team were the first people to represent Australia in any sport, in 1868.

But since Australia’s first Test match in 1877, only Gillespie has represented the indigenous population and Woodland believes he is an inspiration to any aspiring indigenous cricketers:

"Jason was a brilliant cricketer and had a wonderful career. If any of our lads achieve half of what he has, we would be very happy."

Signalling a portent of what might come in the Ashes Series, the current crop of indigenous cricketers competed well against MCC Combined Universities and chased 380 to win the match, by just one wicket.

It was a tense affair but the tourists proved they have skill and nerve, and much promise.

The next Australia Test player from an indigenous background may well have just played (and won) in England for the first time.