Australian cricketing great Alex Blackwell.Credit: Getty Images for Cricket Australia
“I’m very proud of Australian cricket because I do see we’re leaders in many respects. We were the first major sport in Australia to deliver our Trans inclusion policy for both community and elite cricket, and then other major sports followed after us. So I feel really proud of that, and at the community level I see the impact of that inclusion.”
Blackwell’s numbers stack up with anyone in the game, save for the rarefied air occupied by the likes of Meg Lanning, Alyssa Healy and Ellyse Perry – the trio who have come to define an era of uninterrupted brilliance that unfolded after dual disappointments at the 2016 T20 World Cup and then the 2017 50-over edition.
It was in the semi-final of the latter event that Blackwell played what she regards as her finest innings, a rearguard 90 from 56 balls that, with the help of number 11 Kristen Beams, gave Australia a chance to chase down India’s big total.
“One of my favourite things was [my twin] Kate and I were under the lids together in Ashes cricket, either side of the pitch. And it was just so cool to share that with your twin. We were annoying because we stopped everything, and we caught everything, we loved it.”
Alex Blackwell
Internally as vice-captain, Blackwell had been strong in her opinions that the new leadership duo of Lanning and Matthew Mott had work to do to improve the team’s capacity to think on their feet. Mott subsequently acknowledged that fact, although he and Blackwell clashed at the time.
“It’s the best I ever batted, and I had worked so hard in the two to three years leading into that to find more in my game,” Blackwell said. “I found it that day, it was the blueprint I was looking for, and I delivered it, but what’s heartbreaking is it wasn’t quite good enough for the miracle.
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“From that bad run and those losses, it was wonderful to see the team respond, and have a period of dominance where it was almost not very interesting watching the Australian team because they just won so much. When we think of world cricket, the Australian team have never been better, but other teams also have got better, and the competition is awesome.”
That’s why Blackwell is not perturbed by the fact that Australia have fallen short in the past two World Cups in the UAE and India. She sees those results as proof of other nations, notably India and South Africa, raising their games. At the same time, the global T20 circuit has made for a year-round path for women to improve their games and their remuneration – Blackwell is happy to see Lanning, for one, take that up with gusto.
Now 42, a mother, a genetics counsellor, coach at Sydney University cricket club and a commentator, Blackwell is still contributing richly to the game. She says the hall of fame honour is not just for her but also for twin sister Kate, with whom she shared places in numerous Australian teams, including close-in fielding posts where they delighted in mischief-making.
“That’s my proudest thing, that we played for Australia together under Belinda Clark, our hero,” Blackwell said. “My career can at times overshadow what she did, but for anyone to represent Australia, which she did for four years, and she was a part of that change, the first T20 international side, she was equally talented.
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“One of my favourite things was Kate and I were under the lids together in Ashes cricket, either side of the pitch. And it was just so cool to share that with your twin. We were annoying because we stopped everything, and we caught everything, we loved it. You didn’t even have to sledge, you’d just talk across the batter … it was a good time.”
Clark was the first woman inducted in 2014, and last year she was on the panel that chose Blackwell. They’re part of a sisterhood that brought the women’s game to the forefront of cricket, slowly at first, before the revolutionary progress made in Blackwell’s time.
“I’ve had a cup of coffee on a number of occasions now with [former captains] Muriel Picton and Miriam Knee,” Blackwell said. “It’s amazing to talk to them and see what the game looks like now through their eyes as opposed to what it was back then.
“It’s just a joyful thing, whatever era you’re in. Now Miriam, Muriel and I can sit back and watch so much cricket on TV, and it’s awesome. Knowing we’re each a part of the stepping stones for the game. It really does feel like we’re an equal part of things now.”
Alex Blackwell
12 Tests, 444 runs at 22.2, four 50s
144 ODIs, 3,492 runs at 36, three 100s, 25 50s
95 T20Is, 1,314 runs at 21.19, one 50
