Mackay’s Melinda Dwyer to make her Test match scoring debut in Brisbane

Shamar Joseph stole the limelight in the first Test, but this Mackay woman’s Test debut will be a success if she does the opposite. Find out why.

Melinda Dwyer preparing for her Test debut as a scorer. If you needed any indication as to how much she loves cricket, take a look at her earring. Picture: Supplied.

Fanfare swirled around Shamar Joseph’s captivating debut performance at the first Test in Adelaide.

But in the second Test between Australia and the West Indies in Brisbane, the Aussies will be blooding a debutant of their own.

Not on the field. But in the scorer’s box.

After eight years of climbing the ranks, Mackay’s Melinda Dwyer has reached the pinnacle of cricket scoring: her Test match debut.

“I’m ready to go,” Dwyer said, speaking from the Gabba ahead of the first day’s play, the excitement evident in her voice.

But you may be wondering, how does one become a Test match scorer?

For Dwyer, her scoring journey began about eight years ago when her kids began their cricketing careers.

“When I had my three boys, it was like okay you’ve gotta play cricket and I put a cricket bat in their hand as soon as they were old enough,” Dwyer recalled.

“I took them to Proserpine cricket, and it all stemmed from there.”

Melinda Dwyer was crowned Proserpine Cricket’s volunteer of the year in 2018.

She would score their rep games, and then help out at U17 and U19 national championships held in Mackay.

“Through doing a couple of those games I found out that there was actually a pathway for scoring and you could do levels and higher grades of matches,” she said.

“Last year I got my level two accreditation, which is the highest you can get. It enables you to do Test matches and I was the first person outside of the Brisbane metropolitan area to get that.

“Here I am today scoring the Test.”

Dwyer revealed acquiring level two accreditation requires studying theory and also being assessed practically, where someone will observe you score and check for errors.

“Having only just got my level two last year I didn’t think I’d be in with a chance for (the Test match), I thought it would be another year or two,” she said.

Yet six months ago, Dwyer got the call to say she was in. The catch? She had to keep it under wraps.

“It was crazy, I was like, ‘man, I just wanna tell everyone, I’m so excited’.”

In the box at the Gabba, there’ll be three scorers in action, with one working in the traditional book, one taking care of the scoreboard, and another the online scoring.

Melinda Dwyer's view from the scorer's box at the Gabba. Picture: Supplied.

“I much prefer the pace of a Test match … there’s a lot of dot balls you’ve got a lot of time in between to fill out the bits of the card that you missed doing,” Dwyer said.

While it may be her Test debut, she’s no stranger to scoring at the elite level, estimating she’s scored over 30 high-level games in the past four years alone.

Dwyer is also familiar with the Gabba, having scored the Australia v Ireland match at the 2022 T20 World Cup.

She’s also scored every WBBL game in Mackay - and it’s the region she calls home in which she feels particularly passionate about growing the pathways of scorers.

“It’s really cool now, at the start of each season I do a scoring training session with all the clubs,” she said.

“To see scorers that have started scoring in U11s, and I’m getting them to the level that they want to start scoring rep games, and they’ve got the enthusiasm for it.

“Now in Mackay we’ve got enough scorers qualified to do state games and international games, so they don’t have to send people up from Brisbane to do it, which is amazing.”