Australia's three fully-funded disability squads return to action this month with a series of matches against England and New Zealand in Brisbane
All you need to know for the International Inclusion Series
What is the Inclusion Series?
Australia's most talented cricketers with a disability return to the international stage for the first time since before the pandemic when the Commonwealth Bank International Cricket Inclusion Series kicks off in Brisbane on Wednesday.
All three of Australia's National Disability Squads – blind, deaf, and intellectual disability (ID) – will play eight games each, with England sending over deaf and learning disability (LD) squads, while New Zealand's blind cricket team, nicknamed the Blind Caps, is also touring.
Commonwealth Bank's partnership with Cricket Australia makes cricket the only non-paralympic Australian sport to have fully funded national disability squads.
Australia's blind and deaf squads last played international cricket at their respective World Cups in 2018, while the ID squad last played an international series in 2019, also against England.
Explain Blind Cricket to me?
Ten nations play blind cricket, and there is a World Cup in India later this year. Blind Cricket is largely played in the same way as the conventional game of cricket, but with a few key modifications. The ball is made of hard plastic, and it rattles or rings when it is moving, and the stumps are metal (to generate more noise). All bowling is underarm and deliveries must bounce at least twice before reaching the batter.
A team is made up a mix of players from three categories of vision impairment: B1 players are those deemed totally blind – there must be four in the playing XI, and these players must bowl at least eight overs in a T20, or 20 in an ODI. B1 players also wear blacked out glasses when batting to ensure consistency across the category, and they have a runner when batting, and the team is credited with two runs for every run a B1 player scores.
A team must include three B2 players, those with a field of vision of five degrees or less, and there are four partially sighted B3 players, who have a field of vision up to 20 degrees.
What makes a Deaf cricketer?
This includes players who have at least 55 decibels of hearing loss – that's about the volume of normal conversation – and no hearing aids or cochlear implants are allowed to be worn on the field of play at any stage.
The playing conditions are largely the same as the standard laws of cricket.
And the eligibility criteria for the ID team?
The eligibility criteria for athletes with an intellectual impairment is three-fold, and athletes must meet all three elements of the criteria to be considered eligible.
Firstly, it's significant impairment in intellectual functioning, which is defined as a Full-Scale IQ score of 75 or lower.
Secondly, significant limitations in adaptive behaviour as expressed in conceptual, social, and practical adaptive skills, ie performance that is at least two standard deviations below the usual.
And finally, the intellectual disability must be evident before the athlete turned 18.
Like deaf cricket, the game is played under conditions that are largely consistent with the standard laws of cricket.
When does this series start?
It all kicks off at CA's National Cricket Campus in Brisbane on Wednesday, June 8. The England and New Zealand squads flew into Australia over the weekend and will have four days to prepare ahead of the opening ceremony on Tuesday evening.
Schedule of matches
There are 24 games across the three disability categories in the nine days of competition, starting with T20s, followed by one-day matches with a mix of day and day-night games.
Wednesday June 8
Australia Blind v NZ Blind, T20, Alan Pettigrew Oval, 9am
Australia ID v England LD, T20, Geoff Dymock Oval, 9am
Australia Deaf v England Deaf, T20 Alan Pettigrew Oval, 1.30pm
Australia ID v England LD, T20, Geoff Dymock Oval, 1.30pm
Australia Blind v New Zealand Blind, T20, Alan Pettigrew Oval, 6pm
Friday June 10
Australia ID v England LD, T20, Alan Pettigrew Oval, 9am
Australia Deaf v England Deaf, T20, Geoff Dymock Oval, 9am
Australia Blind v NZ Blind, T20, Alan Pettigrew Oval, 1pm
Australia Deaf v England Deaf, T20, Geoff Dymock Oval, 1.30pm
Australia ID v England LD, T20, Alan Pettigrew Oval, 6pm
Sunday June 12
Australia Blind v NZ Blind, T20, Geoff Dymock Oval, 8.30am
Australia Deaf v England Deaf, T20 Alan Pettigrew Oval, 9am
Australia Blind v New Zealand Blind, T20, Geoff Dymock Oval, 1.15pm
Australia ID v England LD, T20, Alan Pettigrew Oval, 1.45pm
Australia Deaf v England Deaf, T20 Alan Pettigrew Oval, 6pm
Monday June 13
Australia ID v England LD, ODI (D/N), Alan Pettigrew Oval, 2.30pm
Tuesday June 14
Australia Blind v New Zealand Blind, ODI, Geoff Dymock Oval, 9.30am
Australia Deaf v England Deaf, ODI (D/N), Alan Pettigrew Oval, 1pm
Wednesday June 15
Australia Blind v New Zealand Blind, ODI, Geoff Dymock Oval, 9.30am
Australia ID v England LD, ODI, Alan Pettigrew Oval, 10am
Thursday June 16
Australia Deaf v England Deaf, ODI, Geoff Dymock Oval, 8.30am
Australia ID v England LD, ODI, Alan Pettigrew Oval, 10am
Friday June 17
Australia Deaf v England Deaf, ODI, Geoff Dymock Oval, 8.30am
Australia Blind v New Zealand Blind, ODI, Alan Pettigrew Oval, 9.30am
How can I watch or listen?
All matches will be streamed live via FrogBox and on the Cricket Australia YouTube channel.
Watch all the matches via FrogBox right here.
What about live scores, news and highlights?
All matches will be scored live on MyCricket. You can also follow CA's social media channels to keep across all the news, scores and highlights, on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Can I come and watch?
Spectators are welcome – the matches are at the Northern Suburbs District Cricket Club in the Brisbane suburb of Wooloowin. Wear your green and gold to support the three Australian squads!
Key players to look out for?
India-born Sydneysider Austin Phillip is one of Australia's most exciting young deaf cricketers. An opening bowler who bowls at 125kmph+ and bats in the top five, Phillip plays First XI Premier Cricket for Parramatta in Sydney. Having debuted as an 18-year-old at the 2018 Deaf Cricket World Cup, he has four years of experience under his belt and will be a key player for the Aussies.
A star across multiple sports, Oscar Stubbswill be on debut for Australia's blind cricket team this month. In his first ever year of blind cricket, Stubbs was part of a record-breaking opening partnership of 235 for NSW against Queensland alongside Lindsay Heaven – a record for any NSW cricket team. Having scored a century in an intra-squad match last year, Stubbs will be hungry to make an immediate impact against New Zealand. Following the Inclusion Series, Stubbs will represent Australia in the ParaSwimming team at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Haydn Brumm, captain of Australia's ID team, will be one to watch. A right-handed top order batter and left-arm orthodox bowler, Brumm scored 211 runs @ 26.38, including two half centuries, and claimed six wickets when Australia last met England at the INAS Global Games back in 2019.
Squads
Australia blind squad: Matt McCarthy (c), Michael Berg, Ned Brewer-Maiga, Brad Brider, Matt Cameron, Shaun Fitzpatrick, Ryan Honschooten, Sean Kendrick, Nathan Letts, Steffan Nero, Steve Obeid, Vaughan Roles, Oscar Stubbs, Lachlan Wallace, Michael Zannis. Coach: Mechelle Hare.
New Zealand blind squad: Jody Cruickshank, Deacan Dunn, James Dunn, Mark Flowerday, Cory Heberley, Arun Kasim, Kaye Kay-Smith, Donna McCaskill, Andrew McDonald, Marquele McCaskill, Tamati Pearse, Parveen Shankar, Brett Wilson. Coach: Brett Wilson.
Australia deaf squad: Andrew Park (c), Callum Asbury, Lewis Beard, Harry Bell, Nick Budden, Tyson Hay, David Melling, Justin Morgan, Shrey Patel, Austin Phillip, Matthew Shenton, Luke Trudgett, Sean Walsh, Cameron Wilson. Coach: Jason Mathers.
England deaf squad: George Greenway (c), Matthew Bailley, Nathan Cadell, James Dixon, Stephen George, Joel Harris, Farooq Mohammed, Jake Oakes, Michael O'Mahony, Stephen Pope, Josh Price, Moazzam Rashid, James Schofield, Umesh Valjee, Henry Wainmann. Coach: Mark Nash.
Australia intellectual disability (ID) squad: Haydn Brumm (c), Craig Blaschke*, Joel Corbett*, Boyd Duffield, Jesse Goodman, Gavan Hicks, Zeb Hovington*, Mitchell Lawrence*, Lachlan MacRae, Sean McGowan, Jamie Phillips, Connor Sheppard, Patrick Wheeler*, Nat Young*. Coach: John Lonergan. * denotes pending eligibility status of cricketer
England learning disability (LD) squad: Chris Edwards (c), Dan Bowser, Jordyn Dore, Jonny Gale, Martin Henderson, Robert Hewitt, Ronnie Jackson, Alex Jervis, Daniel Levey, Kieron McKinney, Andrew Mowatt, Jack Perry, Kester Sainsbury, Thomas Wilson, Tayler Young. Coach: Lauren Rowles.
Form guide
This promises to be tough matches for the Aussies. England's LD team has lost just one match since 2009, and when they last played in 2019, they defeated Australia 8-0.
It has been 11 years since the England Deaf team toured Australia, when they were winners of an T20 tri-series against Australia and South Africa.
The Aussie and New Zealand Blind teams have not met outside of a World Cup in more than a decade.
Want to find out more? Check out the official Commonwealth Bank International Cricket Inclusion Series programme here.