Australian women’s leg-spinner Amanda-Jade Wellington forced to wait to make men’s debut for Port Adelaide after day one abandoned

AUSTRALIAN women’s cricketer Amanda-Jade Wellington was picked to make her men’s senior debut for Port Adelaide on Saturday but did not play because day one was abandoned.

SA Scorpions and Australian leg-spinner Amanda-Jade Wellington was selected in Port Adelaide’s men’s B-grade side on Saturday but the match was abandoned. Picture: AAP/ Keryn Stevens.

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AUSTRALIAN women’s cricketer Amanda-Jade Wellington will have to wait until next season to make her men’s senior debut for Port Adelaide after a day-one washout on Saturday.

Wellington, 20, was last week selected to play for the Magpies’ B grade against Adelaide University away but the game was abandoned due to damp conditions.

The leg-spinner will miss day two of the clash on Saturday because she is leaving this week for Australia’s tour of India and will not return before the end of the season.

Port player/coach Matthew Weeks was keen for Wellington to have a crack in men’s cricket as soon as she was available and believed she could more than hold her own.

“We pride ourselves on ... not just being set in our ways and if someone has the ability to play at a level, male or female, they get an opportunity,” said Weeks, who played two Sheffield Shield and eight limited-overs games for SA.

“She’s the best female leg-spinner in Australia and probably one of the best in the world.

“I put it to her and said ‘would you like to play men’s cricket?’

“She’s a really good character and she’s pretty confident in what she does.

“I’ve been really, really impressed by her.

“When the Bs got washed out, she came out and spent the day with the A grade.”

Amanda-Jade Wellington celebrates the wicket of Tammy Beaumont during day four of the women’s Ashes Test match between Australia and England in November. Picture: Mark Evans.

Wellington has played one Test, nine one-dayers and five Twenty20s for Australia since making her international debut in a 50-over match against South Africa in November 2016.

She has featured for the Magpies in three women’s A grade games this season around her state and national commitments, including on Sunday when she topscored with 61 in Port’s five-wicket loss to West Torrens at Henley Grange Memorial Oval.

Port has a history of giving standout women’s cricketers an opportunity in senior men’s ranks.

Former Australian captain Karen Rolton featured in several B and C-grade matches for the Magpies during the early 2000s.

England wicketkeeper Sarah Taylor is the only female to play men’s A grade cricket in SA in the competition’s 121-year history.

The International Cricket Council’s 2014 women’s ODI player of the year was behind the stumps for Northern Districts against Port Adelaide in October 2015.