Tasmanian Tigers’ Heather Graham offered national contract as Nicola Carey declines deal
Cricket Australia announced a 17-player list of female contracts for 2023-24 on Wednesday with the news revealing one Tasmanian player had accepted her deal while another had declined.
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Tasmania will again have just one female player on Cricket Australia’s books next season with Heather Graham offered a first-time contract and Tigers teammate Nicola Carey opting out following a tough year in the national team.
Graham, who was elevated into the Australian line-up in December of 2022, receives her first national deal after a breakout season that included a hat-trick on debut for her country before being a member of the victorious T20 World Cup campaign in February.
Carey, who was named the female Tigers player of the year last Friday, was offered a contract by the national selectors but declined the deal to focus on her commitments with the Tigers.
“Nicola Carey expressed a desire to spend the winter in Tasmania to allow her to utilize a full pre-season at home,” Cricket Australia national selector Shawn Flegler said.
“(Her) focus is on using that time to develop skills in her game to push for international selection in the future.
“We offered Nic a contract because we believe she is a player of international quality, but we respect her decision to focus on a pre-season program with Tasmania and will continue to support her moving forward.”
The 29-year-old endured a tough year in the national team, missing the final XI in both the 50-over World Cup win in April last year and the Commonwealth Games gold medal match in Birmingham in August before also being overlooked for the T20 World Cup earlier this year.
This didn’t stop her from producing a stellar campaign for the Tigers as they went back-to-back in the women’s national cricket league with Carey scoring 482 runs and taking 10 wickets to win her second award in three seasons.
The announcement of the 17-player list for the 2023-24 season comes following the groundbreaking Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) agreement that saw the number of Cricket Australia women’s contracts increased from 15 to a possible 18 with those players now recognised as full-time athletes.
Cricket Australia 2023-24 contracted women’s players
Darcie Brown
Ashleigh Gardner
Kim Garth
Heather Graham
Grace Harris
Alyssa Healy
Jessica Jonassen
Alana King
Meg Lanning
Phoebe Litchfield
Tahlia McGrath
Beth Mooney
Ellyse Perry
Megan Schutt
Annabel Sutherland
Tayla Vlaeminck
Georgia Wareham
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