Robert Craddock: Why can’t Australia produce Indigenous Test stars?

That Jason Gillespie remains the only Indigenous player out of 458 Aussie Test players is extraordinary. It’s a damning statistic that must be rectified - and soon.

Australia and India take part in a barefoot ceremony in support of Black Lives Matter before the One-Day International cricket match between Australia and India at the SCG. Picture: Brett Costello

Cricket has always been a game defined by numbers and the sobering statistic with Australia’s Indigenous heritage is the loneliest number of all … one.

To be more specific, one out of 458.

As heartening as it was to see Australia’s cricketers form a barefoot circle to support the Black Lives Matter crusade and Australia’s Indigenous heritage at the SCG, nothing would enhance the cause and the culture more by seeing more Indigenous players at the game’s top level.

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Australia and India take part in a barefoot ceremony in support of Black Lives Matter before the One-Day International cricket match between Australia and India at the SCG. Picture: Brett Costello

It really is extraordinary that in 143 years of Test cricket Jason Gillespie is the only Indigenous male Australian to play Test cricket among the 458 players to have worn the baggy green cap.

And Gillespie, a descendant of the Kamilaroi people who once populated northern NSW, played the first part of his career without anyone realising this fact, once saying “I wasn’t hiding it …. It was just that nobody asked.’’

A sprinkling of Indigenous players including Dan Christian and Scott Boland have worn coloured clothes for Australia.

Jason Gillespie is the only Indigenous man to have played Tests for Australia.

D’Arcy Short is in camp with the Australian 50-over team and could don the newly minted Indigenous T20 shirt against India next month.

For 25 years Australia has conducted the Imparja Cup for Indigenous teams from around Australia.

In women’s cricket Ash Gardner joined Indigenous pioneer Faith Thomas as a baggy green cap owner and there are more than 100 male Indigenous players competing in Premier League competitions around Australia.

But just one at Test level.

Australia cricket is well acquainted with this statistic and owns it.

Australia is not proud of it, feeling bewildered and embarrassed in equal measure because the first ever team of Australian cricketers to England was a ground of 14 Indigenous players from western Victoria in 1868.

Mitchell Starc shows off the Indigenous playing shirt the Australians will wear in the T20 international series against India.

Sadly, the momentum of the first tour vanished the year after the players returned home.

Victoria passed legislation that no Aborigines were allowed to leave the state without permission from the government and the interest of many of the players waned.

There has been a theory that Indigenous sportspeople prefer more fast moving games like AFL and rugby league.

Supporters of this theory spotlight the day when a busload of Indigenous children were shipped in to watch the West Indies play in Alice Springs then sat in the grandstand for two overs before heading out back to play football.

But Ian Chappell believes it could all change if they had a role model to prove it could be done and an Indigenous Test star could inspire a fresh generation in the way that Shane Warne reinvigorated wrist spin.

Originally published as Robert Craddock: Why can’t Australia produce Indigenous Test stars?