‘Put Indigenous cricket on the map’: Toseland’s bid for future

Promising Victorian spinner Bailey Toseland will lead an Indigenous side onto the MCG on Wednesday with ambitions to “put Indigenous cricket on the map’.

Bailey Toseland.

Bailey Toseland is hoping he can follow in the footsteps of Test-quick Scott Boland in putting Indigenous cricketers “on the map”.

On Wednesday, Toseland will lead an Indigenous side onto the MCG against a MCC XI before heading to Albury in December as part of the Victorian Under-19 squad.

He hopes a string of performances in the next 12 to 18 months can stamp a bigger Indigenous footprint in cricket, as well as educate others.

“I have just been announced in the Vic Under-19s, I’d love to go well there, get a selection and put Indigenous cricket on the map again in the under-age aspect,” the leg-spinner out of Essendon said.

“Boland did it in the seniors, I would love to put that ahead and then educate everyone else about what it is.”

Bailey Toseland.

The Indigenous side will be coached by accomplished first-class cricketer Jeff Cook, who has driven a focus on camaraderie as the Indigenous program is bound deeper than talent.

“Have fun, relish your time out there and maintain the mateship we hold here,” Toseland said of the coaches’ message.

“The boys that went to Vanuatu and these boys, we hold a really dear mateship with each other and that’s the message: create mates and have them for the rest of your life.

“The mateship and camaraderie, we’re not just here to play cricket, we’re here to build relationships.

“Cooky and Jules (assistant coach Julien Weiner) really address that and I think that’s the point of difference (to other pathway programs).”