Ben Dougall hopes to make smooth transition from state cricketer to AFL footballer

SOUTH Australian cricketer Ben Dougall has shocked the sporting world by pursuing an AFL career, after losing his Redbacks contract last year.

East Torrens cricketer Ben Dougall has been awarded the Adam Gilchrist Scholarship.

SOUTH Australian cricketer Ben Dougall has shocked the sporting world by pursuing an AFL career.

The 22-year-old who lost his Redbacks contract last year has tested with four AFL clubs and hopes to be listed as a category B rookie at next month’s draft.

Dougall, who played two Sheffield Shield games and three one-dayers for SA as a top-order, left-handed batsman in 2010-11, trialled with three clubs last week — two of which were based in Victoria.

Another club trialled him at the end of last cricket season in April. It is understood the Crows and Power are keeping tabs on him.

Dougall has just returned from a third consecutive winter playing cricket in England for Wanderers in the Ribblesdale League. While he still harbours hopes of playing more top-line cricket and has not given the sport away, he is concerned he has fallen well down the pecking order in SA.

Dougall in action for Eastern Edge in the South Australian Premier League.

Mark Cosgrove’s return from Tasmania and the emergence of left-handed young guns Travis Head, Kelvin Smith and Jake Lehmann has left the player who made the Australian under-19 World Cup team in 2010 with plenty of work to do — and plenty of runs to make — to force his way back into Redbacks coach Darren Berry’s plans.

Dougall hasn’t played football for three years, allowing him to qualify as a category B rookie, but he was an outstanding junior. SANFL club West Adelaide paid a clearance fee to sign him from Sturt at 15 and he later played in senior premierships as a teenager with Ramblers in the River Murray League.

Dougall is only 172cm but he is solidly built, quick and powerful. He plays as a midfielder/small forward and has run 2.85 seconds for the 20m sprint.

Dougall’s Redbacks contract wasn’t renewed.

Dougall politely declined to speak to the media yesterday but his manager, Greg Size of Deliver Sports Management, said he hoped to be thrown an AFL lifeline next month.

Size said that if an AFL offer didn’t come his way he would continue to combine cricket commitments with football during summer and try to play with an SANFL club next year.

Dougall plays cricket at grade club East Torrens and is also part of the Eastern Edge SA Premier League team.

“Ben is serious about his football and if a club drafts him he will go down that path,” Size said.

“If not, he will keep his options open and keep pushing with both sports and see how things unfold. He’s an elite athlete who was an outstanding junior footballer before he put his football on hold to pursue his cricket. But now he has a real desire to see how far he can take his football.’’