Blowfly Cricket creating all-rounders on and off the pitch

During last year's Boxing Day Test match, Akanksha Swarup was cheering on her favorite cricketer, Jasprit Bumrah. The world-class bowler was having a phenomenal summer, taking 32 wickets in five test matches. However, she was about to achieve something even more remarkable on a Saturday afternoon in northwest Sydney.

"I took 18 wickets," she said. "I used my bowling action...to line the ball up with the stumps so I could get them out." The 26-year-old plays for the Blowfly Cricket club, a unique club in northwest Sydney dedicated to players with autism and intellectual disabilities like Swarup.

She has been playing for 10 years and has thrived since, not only improving her batting, bowling, and fielding skills, but also her potential as a coach. "I had the opportunity to go to school holidays and teach kids from different schools, and I can teach them [cricket] skills," she said.

"Blowfly Cricket is special." Blowfly Cricket began when founder Mark Rushton recognized a gap in cricket participation for people with intellectual disabilities, leading to a holistic approach to community sport. For these players, it's not just about playing the game, but also the volunteer and management roles they can take on.

"My role now is basically behind the scenes," Mr. Rushton said. "We appoint parents or older cricketers into key volunteer coaching positions, and they manage it themselves." In recent years, Blowfly Cricket has established a coaching program to support players aspiring to gain coaching qualifications.

The Uncoachables Coaching the Uncoachables Academy mentors and assists players through Cricket Australia's community coaching courses. Once cricketers turn 14, they are encouraged to consider the coaching pathway. "They have to work hard, and the family will help them [with] the theory side of things," Mr. Rushton said. The club also provides financial support to aspiring coaches through scholarships and grants.

By providing this pathway, the cricketing world is opening doors for these players and coaches, creating opportunities for careers in cricket – two Blowfly cricketers are now employed by Cricket NSW. Blowfly Cricket is also leading by example, with other programs emerging in the Schofields and Bankstown cricket clubs around Sydney.

The hope is that these programs will be rolled out nationwide, giving all people with disabilities the opportunity to have a hit of backyard cricket on the weekend, or pursue a more elite pathway. Cricket is one of the country's most popular sports, with nearly 800,000 people participating each year. According to Cricket Australia and Ausplay data, approximately 2% of cricketers have a disability.

Despite this low figure, Cricket Australia is the first non-Paralympic sport to fund state and national disability teams across three divisions: blind and low vision, deaf and hard of hearing, and cricketers with an intellectual disability. Since 2017, the National Cricket Inclusion Championships have been held, providing an elite event for cricketers with a disability and a pathway to represent Australia in international series such as the World Cup.

Julie Stafford, Inclusion and Diversity Manager at Cricket NSW, said the real challenge in making the sport more inclusive is the range of disabilities and understanding how local clubs can support cricketers with a disability. "For example, we had a low vision girl playing in a local women's cricket team many years ago, and she was allowed to bowl closer to the stumps, and every time she took a wicket, her teammates would cheer so she would know," Stafford said.

Cricket NSW is working with organizations such as Sports 4 All to support coaches and clubs to become more inclusive. "Clubs don't have to be afraid," Stafford said. "We encourage cricket clubs to be open and welcoming because the benefits and the value of [disabled] cricketers, being included in the game, is just huge."

The potential benefits of inclusion at the grassroots level of cricket are enormous for people with intellectual disabilities, not only athletically, but in other ways as well. "It's amazing to see their progression and their self-esteem, their pride, and the basic [life] skills that improve," Mr. Rushton said.

Swarup and her friend and fellow cricketer, Maddie Jones, were among the first Blowfly cricketers to achieve their Level Two coaching qualification. Like Swarup, Jones also has the opportunity to coach younger children. "[I] show them the skills that they might use in the future when they play for Australia," she said.

Community is very important to the club. Jones' sister, Bronte, is a volunteer, as are many of the cricketers' parents and siblings. "I love having my family here. Mum was the one who got me involved in the first place," Jones said. Cricket has allowed Jones to thrive both on and off the field, becoming a role model for other women with intellectual disabilities to get involved in the sport.

"I think it makes my confidence shine a little bit because I'm around all these new people," she said. "It's important because [I want other people] with disabilities [to] see that I can do this, I can go out into the world, and then say, yes, I can do this."