NSW cricketers celebrate historic First Nations Round

_{(Sydney Thunder’s Hannah Darlington, Sixers' Ash Gardner, Parramatta’s Saira Jabeen and Thunder’s Anika Learoyd with Cricket Blast players Imogen Taylor, Emily Amparo and Elise Waters ahead of the combined First Nations rounds this weekend. Picture: Phil Hillyard)}

For the first time ever, the Weber WBBL, NSW Premier Cricket and community cricket clubs around the state will celebrate First Nations Round together by wearing playing kits featuring Indigenous artwork, conducting a Barefoot Circle and a Welcome to Country or Acknowledgement of Country.

The WBBL First Nations Round and First Nations Community and Premier Cricket Round will encourage clubs to further educate players, volunteers and supporters about the history of Aboriginal and Torres Islanders, along with looking to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander businesses.

The WBBL First Nations Round will see the Sydney Sixers and Sydney Thunder both play matches in their Indigenous kit in a double-header on Cammeraygal Country at North Sydney Oval on Friday, November 10, while Thunder will host a second First Nations Round fixture on Wangal Land at Cricket Central on November 18.

The stunning Sixers playing kit has been designed by award winning Lua Pellegrini, a Wiradjuri woman, while Thunder’s striking kit was created by revered contemporary Aboriginal artist and Yuin woman, Rheanna Lotter. Pellegrini also designed the Sydney Swans’ Marn Grook guernsey.

While the First Nations Community and Premier Cricket Round will be held at the same time as the WBBL round for the first time, the round has been gaining momentum at Premier club and community level for several years with all NSW Premier Cricket clubs conducting ceremonies to recognise the event last season, while a growing number of community clubs are designing their own Indigenous strips.

Sydney Thunder’s Hannah Darlington, a Kamilaroi woman and the current captain of Cricket Australia's Women's Indigenous team, said the coming together of all levels of cricket to celebrate First Nations Round showed how far the game had come in recent years.

“To have a dedicated cricket First Nations Round that recognises and celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples from community level right through to the elite level is something, as an Aboriginal woman, that I am very proud of,” Darlington said.

“A round like this that can be seen everywhere from our television screens with the WBBL, right through Premier Cricket and around our local ovals and parks will only continue to promote education and reconciliation.”