Ashes 2021: Debutant Scott Boland gives Cricket Australia its Cathy Freeman moment
Scott Boland has been backed to inspire generations of Indigenous children to pick cricket over footy following his breakthrough Test appearance.
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Sydney Sixers allrounder Dan Christian believes Scott Boland can be a role model for indigenous kids after the Victorian quick made his Test debut on Boxing Day.
Boland is the fourth indigenous person to play Test cricket for Australia, joining Jason Gillespie, Faith Thomas and Ash Gardner, while there’s also growing representation in the Big Bash League, including Christian who represents the Wiradjuri tribe in New South Wales.
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The NRL and AFL have produced some incredibly talented indigenous players over the years, and Christian hopes Boland and others can inspire stronger participation in cricket over the next few years.
“It’s just great that we can add another role model to the other three that have played Test cricket,” Christian told NCA NewsWire.
“Hopefully some young indigenous kids watched the Boxing Day Test and saw him get his Baggy Green and it means they pick up a cricket bat instead of kicking the footy around.”
Boland’s rise to the Test side is yet another example of hard work paying off, as Christian found out earlier in 2021 when he returned to the national T20 team after a four-year wait.
His fine form continued with a man-of-the match knock of 41 not out from just 17 deliveries in his side’s Sydney Smash win over the Thunder on Sunday night, but he was more than happy to deflect praise to his former Victorian teammate.
“I played 30 or 40 games with Scott at Victoria, so I was thrilled for him to get that opportunity,” the Sixers veteran said.
“He works as hard as anybody and he’s got the results as well because he’s been one of the best bowlers in the Shield for some time now. For him to get this opportunity is brilliant and a real feather in his cap.”
BOLAND DELIVERS CRICKET’S ‘CATHY FREEMAN’ MOMENT
By Ben Horne
Cricket hopes it had its ‘Cathy Freeman’ moment on Boxing Day as Test debutant Scott Boland raised the roof at the MCG.
The sight of an Indigenous athlete inspiring future generations by starring on the biggest stage is exactly what cricket needs, because the fact Boland is only the second Aboriginal male to wear the baggy green for Australia in 144 years is an indictment on the game.
Boland was mentioned by Senior Wurundjeri Elder, Aunty Joy Wandin Murphy in her Welcome to Country before the match, and the crowd of over 50,000 erupted when Australia’s oldest fast bowling debutant in over 70 years – a Victorian – took his first Test wicket late in the day.
“Obviously I was really excited when the finger went up ... all my teammates really got around me which made it really special and when I went down to the boundary the crowd was going nuts,” said Boland.
“I’m pretty proud and my family is very proud as well (being only the second Indigenous male Test cricketer after Jason Gillespie).
“It means a lot to join a pretty small club and hopefully it’s just the start of something bigger for the Inidgneous community in cricket.
“I hope I can be a role model for young Indigenous kids to want to play cricket. The Indigenous community in AFL and rugby are so big, hopefully one day Aboriginals in cricket can be just as big.”
It was significant that tennis No.1 Ash Barty was at the MCG to witness Boland’s slice of history, because it was 50 years after Evonne Goolagong Cawley first won Wimbledon that she broke through as Australia’s second Aboriginal champion this year.
Cricket Australia realised five years ago they didn’t even know how many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders were registered cricket players in Australia, but it’s hoped Gulidjan man Boland can create the opportunity cricket failed to take when Jason Gillespie debuted back in 1996.
“I just get goosebumps thinking about it now,” said Chair of the National Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Cricket Advisory Committee, Justin Mohamed.
“Cricketers that have come through and come to the MCG to see a Dennis Lillee or a Jeff Thomson inspire them. In sport you hear of athletes who say they saw Cathy Freeman in 2000 and that’s inspired them to be the next Olympian.
“Hopefully the six, eight or 10-year-old who’s watching this will say ‘that’s what I want to be’.
“The acknowledgment he got this morning was very good. Any young Aboriginal person seeing that, hopefully they see that and decide they want to step onto the same stage.”
As an Indigenous man, Mohamed has recognised that Aboriginal people are drawn to sports where they see their role models are succeeding and respected.
That is cricket’s great challenge, and Boland is a key driver of the movement as a man who has regularly played in National Indigenous competitions and toured England with an Australian Aboriginal team in 2018.
“Where Aboriginal people have excelled in they’ve gone to sports where they feel there’s an opportunity,” said Mohamed.
“AFL, rugby league, boxing, rugby union with the Ella brothers, (people think), ‘there’s an opportunity, so that’s what I’ll take.’
“For some reason that’s not been seen as a genuine opportunity with cricket and that’s what we’re hoping to change.
“Cricket Australia has acknowledged and recognised there should be a lot more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who should have played for Australia than there has been.
“Scott getting that call up and getting a baggy green and bowling that first ball, it’s a testament to the work that’s been happening over the past five or six years to start moving down this path.
“Hopefully it’s opening a door to a new generation.”
Boland was presented his baggy green cap by fellow fast bowler Josh Hazlewood, with his wife Daphne and two children out in the middle to share in the moment.
There was a cheer from the crowd when the first Victorian Boxing Day debutant since Tony Dodemaide in the 1987 entered the attack for the first time, and also when he took two safe catches on the boundary.
Teammates engulfed him when DRS replays showed he had trapped England tail ender Mark Wood lbw for his first Test wicket to claim figures of 1-48 from 13 overs.
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Originally published as Ashes 2021: Debutant Scott Boland gives Cricket Australia its Cathy Freeman moment
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