When Cricket Australia (CA) decided to organise a historic, first-of-its-kind overseas tour for indigenous women, it had no doubts in choosing India as the destination. “India is a country whose heartbeat is cricket. So it made sense to take a group of indigenous women anywhere for the first time overseas to India,” Sebastian Kipman, the team’s media manager, told The Hindu at the Sachin Tendulkar Gymkhana in Kandivali on the sidelines of the team’s last game in India. The 14-member team, with players who represent different states and territories back home, were on a 10-day tour, playing two matches in New Delhi and three in Mumbai.
The tour is a part of CA’s overall strategy to get more indigenous Australians to play cricket. “This tour is an important step in the evolution,” Mr. Kipman said. “Our aim is to create high performance opportunities for the girls. With this, they have something more than just playing in the state competition each year and nothing beyond that. Not only does this help develop these girls, it also shows back to young indigenous girls that these opportunities exist.”
Australian cricket may have been played primarily be descendants of its European settlers, but the people once called aboriginal — and now referred to as indigenous — have a long history in the game: in 1868, nearly a decade before the first tour by an official team representing the country, a group of 13 Aboriginal Australian cricketers toured England.
The country’s first indigenous women’s international cricket tour comes almost a century-and-a-half later. The 14-member team is backed by CA, and aided by the Australian government. Selection for the tour was based on the performances by the girls in the National Indigenous Cricket Championships — held each February in Alice Springs, in Australia’s heartland, a place which has deep ties with indigenous culture — where state and territory teams compete against each other. CA’s selection panel assesses the players and selects a team of the best.
New South Wales’s Ashleigh Gardner, captain of the team, is all of 19. She made her debut in the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) for the Sydney Sixers this year and also played for the Shooting Stars side (Australia A), and seems sure to achieve her goal: playing for the women’s national team. An explosive batsman and a handy off-spin bowler, she has modelled her game on her idol Andrew Symonds. “Amongst the Indians, I admire Virat Kohli. He can take the game away from the opposition out of nowhere.”
Ms Gardner credits Cricket Australia for organising the tour: “Their support to our cause has been immense. We are allowed to use every facility that there is to offer in our states back home.” CA’s support goes beyond the boundary; it provides retired players the opportunity to work within the state associations.
Mr. Kipman says, “They might be working in indigenous programmes, volunteering, or working within game development opportunities. At the moment, there’s no specific programme where CA offer jobs to the girls. However, if the girls have aspirations to be involved in the administrative or coaching side, that opportunity certainly exists.” For this team, though, their focus right now is just on playing as much cricket as they can. For some, it means balancing training and playing with their studies.
For many of the team, it was their first trip outside their own country. Facing intense conditions, both on and off the field, the journey was a massive learning for the players, some of whom were as young as 16.
It wasn’t all slog though; they got to visit the Taj Mahal, the Australian High Commission in Delhi, and work with Magic Bus, a not-for-profit organisation that supports disadvantaged children through sport. “They will definitely go back having learnt and developed not just as cricketers but also as young women,” Mr. Kipman said.
Ms. Gardner hoped that such tours such would continue, and get bigger and better. “All the girls have that goal of playing for the national team. Coming to India and also participating in tournaments like the WBBL will go a long way in helping us make that breakthrough to the highest level.”
The writer is an intern at The Hindu
I admire Virat Kohli. He can take the game away from the opposition out of nowhere
Ashleigh GardnerCaptain
