Indigenous Sport Month: Test hero Scott Boland on his dramatic debut, attracting more Indigenous yout to cricket

Test hero Scott Boland is adamant cricket can compete with NRL and AFL for the hearts and minds of indigenous youth and the next generation of elite Aboriginal sporting talent.

Australia's Scott Boland burst onto the test scene during the past summer’s Ashes Picture: AFP

Scott Boland’s role in inspiring a new wave of Indigenous cricketers is set to take on a real time pulse, with the Test hero outlining a personal mission to visit remote communities around Australia.

Boland’s remarkable debut at the MCG on Boxing Day last year captured the imagination of the entire country, but resonated on an even deeper level with Aboriginal youth who finally had a face they could connect with who wore the famous baggy green of Australia’s national sport.

Following his never-to-be-forgotten 6-7 in the second innings in Melbourne, Boland was flooded with messages of support from Indigenous athletes including Olympian Nova Peris, AFL star Charlie Cameron and NRL leader Latrell Mitchell, and of course Australia’s only other Aboriginal male Test player, Jason Gillespie.

It’s a shameful indictment on Australian cricket that Boland and Gillespie are the only Aboriginal representatives in more than 140 years of Test cricket. But in his own quiet, unassuming way, the man himself is determined to help become a force for change.

Boland has called on Cricket Australia to consider shifting its national Indigenous championship, the Imparja Cup, to a new out-of-summer timeslot which would allow the likes of he, Dan Christian, D’Arcy Short and Ashleigh Gardner to play alongside the next generation of Aboriginal cricketers.

Next month, when he returns home from Australia’s tour of Sri Lanka, Boland plans to visit Uluru and begin his crusade to take the game – and his extraordinary story – to the people.

“Hopefully I can help pave the way for Aboriginal kids to want to play cricket,” Boland told News Corp.

“I spoke to Dan (Christian) and we thought we could make (it a plan) to have us players at the Imparja Cup and even going out to remote communities and taking out plastic bats and balls and just get thousands of them out there to get people playing the game of cricket.

“Obviously there’s such a higher percentage of Aboriginal players in the NRL and AFL and if we can help grow the game at the lowest level, hopefully it will filter through over the next few years to the higher level.

“I think I’m going to Uluru when I get back from Sri Lanka, just to do a little bit in that space.”

Boland believes it’s wrong to assume Aboriginal kids are just more naturally drawn to playing sports like rugby league and Australian rules football, and believes it’s up to cricket to make up for lost time and implement the pathways to capture the hearts and minds of Indigenous youth.

Scott Boland believes cricket can attract young Indigenous sporting talent. Picture: David Crosling

“If you’re not seeing Aboriginal cricketers on TV, maybe there’s not as much drive there to get into that sport,” he said. “I think cricket will get there.”

The annual Imparja Cup has not happened since Covid, but Boland believes CA bosses should consider moving it out of its normal February timeslot and to a time when its profile and influence can be boosted.

Boland at 33 has never had the chance to play in an Imparja Cup and believes he can make a difference.

“It’s always on when I was playing first-class cricket. But if guys like me and Dan Christian and D’Arcy, and then from the girls, Ash Gardner and Hannah Darlington (can play), if they played the championships at a time when we can either go play or go there to help promote it, I think it’s going to help grow the game in those areas (like Alice Springs and Darwin),” Boland said.

“For the younger guys, to be able to learn stuff off guys like D’Arcy and Dan, it just helps them to develop their cricket and go from premier cricketers to trying to help them take the next step.

“They talk about it being one of the great weeks of the year. I would love to be part of it at some stage.”

It was one of the most poignant moments in the history of the Boxing Day Test when Boland was awarded the Johnny Mullagh Medal for player of the match, an award in honour of the Aboriginal cricketing pioneer who led the first touring Australian sporting team to England in 1868.

Scott Boland was awarded the Johnny Mullagh Medal for player of the match for his sterling debut performance in the Boxing Day Test. Picture: Getty Images

It was as if it was meant to be, with an emotional Belinda Duarte, a descendant of another member of Mullagh’s 1868 Aboriginal team, tasked with presenting Boland the medal.

Boland concedes he was so overwhelmed by the outpouring of support that there are still messages he hasn’t read.

A few texts from Gillespie though, helped the magnitude of his achievements as a proud Gulidjan man sink in.

“I got some really nice messages off him through the summer,” Boland said.

“He just said it was a really proud day for all Aboriginal people and that he was really proud and happy for me and my family.

“It didn’t probably sink in until after the game. I knew it was big when I got a mention in the Welcome To Country before the Test, and then when I got presented the medal, I could tell then it was a pretty special moment.”

Originally published as Indigenous Sport Month: Test hero Scott Boland on his dramatic debut, attracting more Indigenous yout to cricket