{"id":612257,"date":"2026-04-17T05:16:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T05:16:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/612257\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T05:16:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T05:16:19","slug":"national-indigenous-cricket-championships-offers-pathways-for-young-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/612257\/","title":{"rendered":"National Indigenous Cricket Championships offers pathways for young players"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every week for the past five months, Caitlyn Henry has driven two and a half hours from her home in Mount Garnet in Far North Queensland to play cricket in Cairns.<\/p>\n

Since competing in the State Indigenous Challenge in November, she has been training hard in preparation for the National Indigenous Cricket Championships (NICC), being held in Mackay this week.<\/p>\n

“It’s been rough,” she laughed.<\/p>\n

While she said she did not like travelling so far “that much”, it was worth the opportunity to don the maroon jersey.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

The National Indigenous Cricket Championships began as a Central Australian competition in the 1990s.\u00a0 (ABC Tropical North: Yasmine Wright Gittins)<\/p>\n

“[My family] were super excited, really proud of me, now they see me wearing the Queensland shirt,” Ms Henry said.<\/p>\n

“I feel like a proud Indigenous woman to be wearing this.”<\/p>\n

It is the 10th year of the NICC in its current form and the second year it has been hosted on Yuwibara Country.<\/p>\n

The competition features women’s and men’s teams from almost every state.<\/p>\n

This year, for the first time, it also includes Papua New Guinea’s national team, the Barramundis.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The PNG Barramundis are competing in the competition for the first time.\u00a0 (ABC Tropical North: Yasmine Wright Gittins)<\/p>\n

A decade of growth<\/p>\n

Queensland women’s team manager and mentor, Tamika Hansen, said the tournament was about more than just cricket.<\/p>\n

“The mighty maroon jersey is a very big privilege in our state, no matter what sport,” she said.<\/p>\n

“But we are here to represent our families first and foremost. We are playing within not only the spirit of cricket but also as Indigenous people.”<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Tamika Hansen has been part of the NICC for more than a decade.\u00a0 (ABC Tropical North: Yasmine Wright Gittins)<\/p>\n

The now-mentor has seen the championship evolve over the past decade, which began before Queensland had even secured a women’s team.<\/p>\n

She knows just how much the players are putting in.<\/p>\n

“Some girls in remote communities have to travel hours, and that’s not just travelling, that’s finding the means of a car and paying for fuel,” she said.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on the past 10 years, she was glad to see changes in what opportunities were available to young, Indigenous players.<\/p>\n

“It’s been quite incredible to see \u2026 the young ones nowadays have a lot of support around them,” Ms Hansen said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Mackay has secured the competition for 2027 with a two-year hosting deal.\u00a0 (ABC Tropical North: Yasmine Wright Gittins)<\/p>\n

“I can’t imagine what the game will be in 10 years’ time.”<\/p>\n

While Ms Hansen said it was good to see more efforts to reach Indigenous players in regional and remote areas, change on a broader scale was still needed.<\/p>\n

“I think we can always do more as a society, and in sport, with stamping out racism and providing better culturally appropriate pathways for Indigenous people,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"Women<\/p>\n

The high-performance program has helped cricketers rise to the BBL and national teams.\u00a0 (ABC Tropical North: Yasmine Wright Gittins)<\/p>\n

An essential pathway<\/p>\n

The National Indigenous Cricket Championships has its roots in a cricket match between Alice Springs and Tennant Creek in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

Cricket Australia took over running the competition in 2001 and made it a national tournament.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

The championships were previously held in Alice Springs. (Supplied: Cricket Australia)<\/p>\n

The championships are an opportunity for younger players to meet and compete against big names in Australia cricket.\u00a0<\/p>\n

NSW player and coach, Patrick Rosser, said the tournament was part of Cricket Australia’s high-performance pathways program and opened doors for talented young cricketers like the National Indigenous under-23 side.<\/p>\n

“Being picked up by other premier clubs is another opportunity,” he said.<\/p>\n

“In previous years, we’ve seen particularly some of our women players go through and play in the WBBL and to play for Australia.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Pat and James Rosser, the father-son duo playing for NSW.\u00a0 (ABC Tropical North: Liam O’Connell)<\/p>\n

Mr Rosser said this year was particularly special, with his son James playing in the NSW side as well.<\/p>\n

James said he had made the trip to Mackay last year but had not pictured himself picking up the bat so soon.<\/p>\n

“I thought I’d maybe get a chance to do it a bit later on, but not at 16,” he said.<\/p>\n

Northern Territory squad member Bradley Ilott said the tournament marked a “full-circle moment” for him, after spending much of his childhood in Mackay.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Bradley Ilott says the NICC in Mackay is like a “full-circle” moment.\u00a0 (ABC Tropical North: Liam O’Connell)<\/p>\n

“With cricket being played during the dry season [in the NT], it just gives you that unique experience you don’t get in most of the southern states,” he said.<\/p>\n

He said the week in Mackay included several cultural-engagement sessions where teams talked about the championships and how they’d like to see the competition progress.<\/p>\n

“It’s all one large brotherhood or sisterhood up here,” Mr Ilot said.<\/p>\n

“We’re all proud to be out here, not just [for] our state but our people back home, our mobs.”The next generation<\/p>\n

For Ms Henry, the championships are also an opportunity to show young, aspiring cricketers in her hometown that there are viable pathways.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Caitlyn Henry says her family was “super excited” to see her wear the maroon jersey.\u00a0 (ABC Tropical North: Yasmine Wright Gittins)<\/p>\n

“Some younger people from home are getting into cricket, they love it as well, they want to go far,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It would be pretty good seeing them if they come as far as I am.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every week for the past five months, Caitlyn Henry has driven two and a half hours from her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,18587,297346,297343,271858,297345,297344,85,29879],"class_list":{"0":"post-612257","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cricket","11":"tag-cricket-australia","12":"tag-indigenous-sport","13":"tag-national-indigenous-cricket-championship","14":"tag-nsw-cricket","15":"tag-nt-cricket","16":"tag-qld-cricket","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-wbbl"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}