Port Adelaide under-14 white skipper Abbi Manuel becomes first female captain of male side in SA Cricket Association history
She sets fields, picks the bowling order and is at the coin toss. But Abbi Manuel is no ordinary captain. Abbi, 15, is the first female to skipper a male side in any SA Cricket Association competition.
Cricket
Don't miss out on the headlines from Cricket. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- SA Scorpions star playing for different men’s, women’s clubs
- How to get the most out of your Advertiser digital subscription
Abbi Manuel gets strange looks when she joins opposing cricket captains for the coin toss.
That is because the Port Adelaide “medium pace” bowler skippers a boys’ team – Port Adelaide’s under-14 whites.
Abbi has held the role since the start of the season and in doing so become a trailblazer.
She is the first female on record to captain a male side in the SA Cricket Association’s 148-year history.
“I think they (other captains) are quite shocked,” Abbi, 15, says.
“It’s a bit odd seeing a girl playing but then seeing her be captain …
“They kind of look at you like ‘oh, OK’, then they shake your hand.
“(Teammates) don’t seem to mind it and they’re very accepting.
“They’re a good bunch of lads.”
Several females have played in male sides in SACA competitions over the years, including England wicketkeeper Sarah Taylor in Northern Districts’ A grade and Karen Rolton and Amanda-Jade Wellington in Port’s Bs, but none are believed to have captained them.
Abbi has been playing in boys’ teams for close to a decade.
It started when she was six and her brothers’ side, Grange under-11s, was short.
“I said I’d play, Dad (Kerryn) said ‘no you won’t’, but I did,” Abbi recalls.
“I didn’t mind playing with boys – I was younger and it was all the same.”
Abbi honed her skills in backyard battles with her siblings Clayton and Jonty, who made her field a lot more than bat or bowl.
She became the first girl to feature in more than 50 games for Grange, before switching to Port this off-season.
Abbi moved to play in the Magpies’ top women’s side, which joined Adelaide Turf’s top grade this season after being dumped from SACA due to a lack of numbers.
But with Port struggling to fill two junior male teams, she was offered the chance to also don the whites with its boys.
Her experience in a side with several teammates who had never played club cricket ensured she got the nod as skipper on the morning of this season’s first game.
“I was happy and I was keen but at the same time a bit nervous,” she says.
Abbi is now enjoying the responsibilities, such as setting fields and picking the bowling order.
Ask her about the goals for the developing team, which is bottom with a 0-3 record, and she even talks like a captain.
“It’s not really about winning, it’s about getting our boys to be comfortable playing and be able to improve,” she says.
Abbi, who has been given special dispensation to be an over-age player in Port’s team because she is a girl, considers herself a “little bit” of a cricket junkie.
When she does homework, she keeps an eye on matches in a separate tab on the computer.
If games are on TV at night, Abbi stays up late to watch them with Kerryn.
“What Mum doesn’t know won’t hurt her,” she says with a laugh.
Abbi’s dream is to follow in the footsteps of Port products Rolton and Wellington by playing for Australia.
Wellington, who splits her time between the SA Scorpions, Adelaide Strikers, the Magpies’ B-grade men and West Torrens’ women’s As, is one of Abbi’s idols.
“I look up to her and she’s doing a great job,” Abbi says.
Port’s junior co-ordinator Ryan Egan says Abbi has been a popular captaincy choice.
“I got a lovely text message the other day,” Egan says.
“It says ‘by the way, I’ve had three different parents from the whites telling me how fantastic they think Abbi is’.
“She’s doing a great job.”
Originally published as Port Adelaide under-14 white skipper Abbi Manuel becomes first female captain of male side in SA Cricket Association history