Why Lukas Woodhouse is the new 'Mr Cricket'

When it comes to sheer cricketing enthusiasm, Lukas Woodhouse puts even Mike 'Mr Cricket' Hussey in the shade.

The youngest member of Australia's Intellectual Disability squad touring South Africa this month, 20-year-old Woodhouse has for the past few weeks been regularly donning his brand new Australia cap and playing shirt and standing in front of a mirror in his Port Melbourne home.

Just to make sure this pinch-me moment is real.

"It's unbelievable," he tells cricket.com.au of his maiden international call-up. "It's a great opportunity for me.

"I keep speaking to my mates about it, and they're so pumped for me. They couldn't believe it. They were just over the moon for me. It's going to be an unbelievable experience."

Woodhouse, who will next year study a pre-apprenticeship in carpentry before launching into his first year in the trade, was diagnosed with a mild intellectual disability around the beginning of high school. It made learning a challenge and meant he suffered from anxiety in many public situations.

Which made sport – and particularly cricket – all the more important for him.

"He's experienced the good and the bad of school," says his mum, Kylie. "He had learning difficulties throughout, but sport always connected him to his peers, so that's always been a good link for him. And he's had the talent to help him through.

"Lukas really struggled to make friends and everything but having those mateships through sport – especially cricket – gave him that foundation. He would take a wicket and everyone would get around him, then he'd get home and relive all those moments.

"And he's been included in mainstream cricket as well, which I think has been a key for him. There's been a spot everywhere for him, and it's been great.

"He just loves cricket so much. The passion that he has is adorable to watch … and I can tell too when he walks on the ground, everything else just doesn't matter anymore. That's his happy place."

Woodhouse inherited his cricketing passion from his dad, Matthew, whom he has played alongside at Deer Park in the mainstream cricket competition in Melbourne's west. As a kid, he badgered his mum to allow him to get involved in the equivalent of today's Woolworths Blast competition well before he was old enough to actually participate.

"He kept telling me he wanted to play, and I was like, 'But you're still too young', but he said, 'I'll just go up and ask'," laughs Kylie. "He just wanted to play so badly. In the end they let him sign up a year early, because he was just so passionate."

A diehard Geelong fan in the AFL, sport has been Woodhouse's connection to the community from that early age, and when he was 16, he attended a cricket carnival at the Melbourne Cricket Ground which put him on the cricketing path that followed.

"The Victoria, Renegades and Stars squads were there, the Vics ID team was there," he recalls. "Victoria said they were interested in me, and they got me to play for Williamstown in the MAACA (Melbourne All Abilities Cricket Association).

And so began a hectic cricketing lifestyle across the next few years, though for the allrounder who bowls right-arm pace and opens the batting, too much cricket is simply never enough.

"Ever since he was young, he carried a bat and ball around the house, and still now he talks about cricket all the time," smiles Kylie, who works a six-day-a-week job in construction.

"He would play every day if he could. He rings me every day, saying, 'I've got cricket today', and I'm like, 'Again?'

"He's training, or playing, or he's put his hand up for this extra game somewhere. I can't keep up with it. It's amazing – just fantastic."

In February, Woodhouse was part of the Victoria ID side that won their division in the National Cricket Inclusion Championships. Opening the batting in the final, he made an assured 20 from 27 balls to help the Vics to their target of 84 against Tasmania in Brisbane.

The allrounder's steady progression through state representation and now onto the national squad has been built off his passion aligned with hard work, and perhaps some sporting genetics at work as well; his cousin Charlie Clarke has just been drafted to the Western Bulldogs in the AFL.

"My brother Jason (Clarke) has been a big influence on Lukas as well," Kylie adds. "He was captain-coach of the local football team and he was always getting Lukas involved, and getting him to understand that sport has a really positive effect on mental health, and the importance of being active and eating well."

Woodhouse cites everyone from Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting through to contemporary champions Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne and Pat Cummins as his cricketing heroes, but he reserves a special place in his heart for his mum, throughout not only his cricketing journey, but life.

"She's been my rock," he says. "She's always been by my side, always helped me out when I was struggling, giving me advice. She's been the best."

Embarking on their first international tour in six years, the national ID squad is currently in Pretoria, where they play six T20I matches in a tri-series with South Africa and England.

Woodhouse, who is one of three rookies alongside Lachlan Mitchell and Ethan Hooper, has no shortage of state teammates by his side, including experienced pair Gavan Hicks and Lachlan MacRae, as well as his Williamstown teammate Mitch Lawrence.

And it's a fair bet he's the most enthusiastic of the lot.

"It's just unbelievable," he says again of the opportunity. "I can't get over it. Like, I'm representing my country. It's unreal."