VSDCA 2018-19: Box Hill cricketer Blake Nikolic travels from Wodonga every weekend
IS Blake Nikolic the most committed cricketer in the country? By the season’s end, the Wodonga man will have clocked up more than 20,000km to play for his beloved Melbourne club.
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IS Blake Nikolic the most committed cricketer in the country?
You would have a hard time finding someone as dedicated as the young all-rounder.
Nikolic travels from Wodonga, some 330km from Box Hill City Oval, every Saturday to play with the Mustangs.
At the conclusion of the Sub-District Cricket season, Nikolic would have travelled more than 13,500km.
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And that’s just to play.
Throw in another 7000km for training and the cricket tragic would have clocked up more than 20,000km to play with Box Hill.
The alarm goes off at 5am, he throws down some breakfast, packs his gear and is behind the wheel of his 2012 VE Commodore — “kind of needed the new one to do all the travelling” — by 6am.
“Make sure I’ve got everything I need for the game — can’t really turn around,” Nikolic said.
“I’ll go and fuel up before I go … get to the ground hopefully by 10.30, 11am.”
Sometimes the 21-year-old will call into Euroa to break up the three-and-a-half-hour drive, but “I just like to keep going in case anything happens”.
“If it’s a home game I’ll quickly stop in and get some arvo tea but if not we just go to the ground,” Nikolic said.
“Normally it takes me a little while to find them because obviously I’m not from around there.”
After the day’s play Nikolic is again on the road and heading back up the Hume, usually arriving on the border near midnight.
With his parents for company, he sometimes plays the role of passenger for the trek home.
“It’s a very big day,” he said.
“There’s been a lot of times, because my parents come with me, and I’ve just said to my mum, ‘can you drive? I just need to sleep’.”
It’s also not unusual for Nikolic to travel down during the week for training.
“Minimum it would be once a fortnight, twice a month, three times a month,” he said.
“I’m pretty lucky, my boss swapped my times around, so I’ll finish at 12.30pm on the Thursday … (and) I’ll do a later shift on my Friday morning.”
Keen to play in Melbourne, Nikolic arrived at Box Hill through a chance encounter with Mustangs officials at a Big Bash League game.
“My dad wanted to grab a drink and he saw a cricket club,” he said.
“He started talking to (former captain) Paul Gloury. Dad said to him I wanted to play cricket in Melbourne. He said, ‘yep, come down, have a training run’.
“I always wanted to be better, always pushed myself more and I found an opportunity with Box Hill to play there.
“Went and had a training run and the season after I joined on.”
But Nikolic might be about to get some respite from the travel.
“Just recently I’ve been talking to my boss at work for a transfer potentially,” he said.
“Hopefully early next year I might be able to move down.”
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