Indigenous players get a chance to step up

The inaugural National Indigenous Cricket Championships start in Alice Springs next week, providing Aboriginal and Torres Islander cricketers more opportunities than ever before to reach the top.

From Monday, 12 teams of Australia’s most talented male and female Indigenous cricketers will take to the fields of the Red Centre to compete for the inaugural title.

The championships, which previously made up the state and territory division of the all-Indigenous cricket carnival the Imparja Cup, now form part of Australian cricket’s elite development pathway, with the aim of having more Indigenous cricketers represent Australia at the highest level.

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"These championships are an important step forward in our efforts to give Indigenous Australians the best opportunities to reach their cricketing potential," said Andrew Ingleton, Cricket Australia's Executive General Manager of Game and Market Development.

"The Championships come at a time when Indigenous cricket is on the rise.

"Not only are thousands of people enjoying the game at grassroots level, but also a number are playing cricket at a very high standard, including the Big Bash League, Women’s Big Bash League and Australia in under-19 competition.

"Given the amount of talent out there, we believe our goal of seeing more Indigenous cricketers following in the footsteps of former Australian players Faith Thomas and Jason Gillespie is not too distant.

"The inaugural National Indigenous Cricket Championships will help propel us toward this vision."

The men's division of the NICC will be a mix of 20- and 50-over matches, while the women will compete in an all 20-over format competition. The finals for men and women will be held on Monday 15 February.

The Imparja Cup will begin on February 9 and run simultaneously with the NICC, featuring major centre, community, school and indoor teams from across Australia.

In 2015-16 more than 26,000 Indigenous Australians played cricket.

At the elite level, six Indigenous players were a part of the KFC Big Bash League: Nathan Gardner (Stars), Brandon King (Hurricanes), Dan Christian (Hurricanes), D’arcy Short (Scorchers), Brendan Doggett (Heat) and Josh Lalor (Heat).

Three women took part in the Rebel WBBL: Ash Gardner (Sixers), Natalie Plain (Stars), Ash Barty (Heat).

Two male under-19s represented Australia (Brendan Smith and Jonte Pattison), and multiple players represented their states and territories at senior and underage level.

Among the activities scheduled for the eight-day cricket tournament, young Australian paceman Pat Cummins and recently retired star Test star Ryan Harris will visit Alice Springs as part of the inaugural championships.

The fast bowling pair will be joined by a trio of WBBL players – Briana Binch (Renegades), Kristy Lamb (Renegades) and Lauren Ebsary (Strikers).

The NICC is supported by NT Cricket, the Northern Territory Government and Alice Springs Town Council. The Commonwealth Bank is the principal partner of the competition.

CommBank has been supporting Australian cricket at all levels for over 28 years and is proud to be the principal partner of the Imparja Cup and National Indigenous Championships.

To find how CommBank is supporting cricket, or to apply for a CommBank Cricket Club Sponsorship, visit www.commbank.com.au/cricket.