{"id":4236,"date":"2025-04-19T15:21:54","date_gmt":"2025-04-19T14:21:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/?p=4236"},"modified":"2025-04-20T09:42:14","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T08:42:14","slug":"archive-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/2025\/04\/19\/archive-11\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian Legends Support Development"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (June 18th<\/sup> 2010)<\/a>[1]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editor\u2019s Note<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The issue of racism in sport remains pertinent. We have covered this and other issues for several years. The story of Aborginal cricket is important and still relevant especially with the 74th<\/sup> Ashes series looming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Return<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just a year after losing the Ashes in England Ricky Ponting\u2019s Australian side is back, mainly to take on Pakistan, as that country is still banned from hosting cricket. The MCC is sponsoring their series through the Spirit of Cricket. The Australians will host England in the return Ashes series later this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ponting has criticised England\u2019s policy of qualifying Irish players for their team, which he believes is affecting the development of Irish cricket. Previously Ed Joyce made an impression with Ireland before opting to play for England. He never made the grade and decided to pledge his international future back to Ireland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eoin Morgan is the latest Irishman to play for England, becoming a Twenty20 World champion in the process and forcing his way into England\u2019s Test side too. It is natural that they will want to test themselves against stronger opposition, but is Australia blameless? Dirk Nannes plays for Australia \u2013 now. In last year\u2019s Twenty20 World Cup he played for the Netherlands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Current Dutch captain Pete Borren has no problem with Nannes opting to play for Australia. \u201cDirk \u2013 well he\u2019s Australian,\u201d Borren told us exclusively. \u201cHe\u2019s gone off to play for Australia and good on him. Good luck to him. He\u2019s doing really, really well for them, so it\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nannes has Dutch and Australian heritage \u2013 his mixed ancestry allowed him to play for the Netherlands and later Australia because the Dutch only had Associate membership of the ICC [International Cricket Council]. But Nannes is Australian \u2013 he was born there and was developed in that country, not the Netherlands. He helped the Dutch record their greatest achievement in cricket so far, but as Borren says, Nannes is Australian and the development of Dutch cricket is progressing. But what about Aboriginals in Australia?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Potential<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jason Gillespie is the great-grandson of a Kamiliroi warrior. He is also the first Australian with acknowledged Aboriginal heritage to wear the famous green cap of his country. That is a shameful indictment of Australian sport. The Aboriginal contribution to Australian cricket has been ignored for far too long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fantastic players like Unaarimin, Albert (Alec) Henry, Jack Marsh and Eddie Gilbert were ignored by selectors, but Cricket Australia wants to develop Aboriginal players now. Ponting\u2019s team was not the only Australian tourists last year. Young Aboriginal players came too in order to get used to touring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Australian batting legend Matthew Hayden is involved with Cricket Australia\u2019s plans to develop Aboriginal cricketers. He is not alone \u2013 the greatest bowler in Australian history \u2013 Shane Warne[2]<\/a> waxes lyrical about Aboriginal sportsmen. He has placed his vast knowledge at the disposal of Australian cricketers, including Aboriginals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m an ambassador for Cricket Australia and I work with domestic captains and domestic spinners for the last eighteen months \u2013 two seasons \u2013 so we\u2019ve got a lot of good spinners,\u201d Warne said last summer, but what about Aboriginal sport?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very lucky with indigenous people in Australia,\u201d says Warne. \u201cThey\u2019re very talented. We\u2019ve seen them be very successful in Australian Rules football. I think with competitions like IPL [Indian Premier League] \u2013 Twenty20 \u2013 the more of that played, then the more of those indigenous players are going to get their chance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He believes that the Aboriginal tourists had plenty of potential and were developing well. \u201cThey\u2019re playing exceptional cricket over here at the moment,\u201d he told us. \u201cI met them this morning. They\u2019re playing very well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Warne wants to see them provided with more assistance in order to bring them through to international level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve got a lot of talent you know,\u201d said Warne. \u201cThe indigenous people need coaches out there and set up a platform to see them play. If these guys can come through the system and show off their skills to the people who make those decisions and the coaches for the under-age tournaments, whether 15, 17, 19, etc., then hopefully they can get invited down to domestic cricket and hopefully, we can get them playing international cricket.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/a> This article was first published in the Magazine in 2009. We publish it again as the issues that it raises remain pertinent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2]<\/a> Sadly, Warne, who took 708 wickets in Test Matches, died in March 2022, aged just 52.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (June 18th 2010)[1] Editor\u2019s Note The issue of racism in sport remains pertinent. We have covered this and other issues for several years. [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1057],"tags":[1026,1010,878,843,1038,1027,1030,1034,729,1029,1031,976,951,1033,1028,919,1036,1037,1032,921],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4236"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4236"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4248,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4236\/revisions\/4248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}