Jason Gillespie calls for Australia Day date change after Ashleigh Gardner calls out Cricket Australia

As Ash Gardner expressed her reservations about playing on January 26, another Indigenous star has called for change.

You can feel the temperature rising …

As Indigenous star Ash Gardiner spoke of her concern about playing on Australia Day, Test great Jason Gillespie called for a date change for our national day to one “all Australians can celebrate.’’

Gardner expressed her reservations about playing against Pakistan on Thursday, Australia Day, a day she described as one of “genocide, massacres and dispossession.”

She was spotlighting the Invasion Day sentiment which resonates so deeply with Indigenous Australians in particular.

The problem for cricket is that it is caught in the crossfire of a war of Australia’s making.

Cricket Australia, despite a regrettable history of abject non-encouragement of Indigenous cricketers, now has Indigenous cricket tops, an Indigenous advisory panel, the Imparja Cup for Indigenous teams in central Australia and its Test players occasionally form a barefoot circle to acknowledge traditional owners of the land.

Jason Gillespie (left) wants the date of Australia Day to be changed. Picture Sarah Reed

But, for a lot of Indigenous people, the Australia Day debate means more than all of these combined.

And while it is anchored on January 26, the day the first Fleet landed in Botany Bay, there will always be an asterisk beside the significant improvements made in other areas.

Australia’s first Indigenous male cricketer Gillespie has in the past lauded cricket’s efforts to change its ways but feels the date change would be an important step forward.

“A day in which all Australians can celebrate would be my preference,’’ Gillespie told News Corp on Sunday.

“What a lot of people don’t realise is that history shows Australia Day has not always been celebrated on January 26.

“The conversations need to continue to explore an alternative.’’

Earlier this century the Australia Day cricket fixture had a Melbourne Cup feel about it.

It was played at Adelaide Oval and locals jealously guarded its tradition – but no-one wants to own the date now.

The fact that there is no Big Bash fixture on Thursday is curious. It’s true that there is a natural gap in the fixtures this week with the finals starting – and that CA was clean to give the women’s fixture clear air – but Thursday, a public holiday, is the only day this week without a Big Bash game.

Cricket officials are tip-toing through the minefield.

The Adelaide Strikers play off for the Jason Gillespie Trophy in the BBL. Picture: Sarah Reed/Getty Images

They are trapped between the nation they want Australia to become, the reality of where it is at the moment and the burdens created by a regrettable past, on and off the field.

It’s totally understandable Gardner has deep feelings on the matter.

And it takes courage to express them because within an hour of posting her thoughts on social media there was some horrendous feedback which, as Jess Jonassen pointed out, only reinforced why more education is necessary on this topic.

Gardner was referring to Australia’s wider society but the facts are Australia’s Indigenous cricketers were horribly marginalised for more than a century.

Despite an Indigenous cricket side being the first Australian cricket side to tour England in 1868, not one of Australia’s first 369 Test cricketers were Indigenous.

Then came Gillespie as Test cap 370 and more recently Scott Boland. That makes two out of 464.

It’s a statistic the game is desperate to improve … not before time.