When Ashleigh Gardner takes strike against the world’s fastest bowlers or prepares to bowl her off-spin to the likes of Meg Lanning, her quiet assuredness belies her youth. At 19 years of age the Sydney Sixers rising star already performs with the composure of a veteran, having spent more than a decade punching above her weight and taking down older opponents.
Gardner says it all started in the back yard against brother Aaron, three years her senior but remorseless off a long run-up. “I was a bit of a tomboy so I was always out in the back yard with my brother playing rugby league or cricket,” she says.
In this summer’s Women’s Big Bash League Gardner has looked to consolidate on the gains of a frenetic, year-round schedule that has made her as good as a full-time cricketer, taking in tours of Sri Lanka, Dubai and India, plus a crammed schedule for her grade side, the NSW Breakers and her state’s Imparja Cup team.
Perhaps Gardner’s greatest career leap of 2016 was her captaincy of the inaugural Australian Aboriginal women’s team in India, a tour that presented plenty of challenges but an experience she hopes to repeat.
“Leading a team of such inexperienced players, but at a high level, was quite a difficult task,” she says. “It was definitely something that developed my leadership skills and it was quite a hard tour. I reckon 60% of the squad hadn’t gone out of the country before, let alone played cricket in another country.”
In India the hard-hitting all-rounder also extended her gaze beyond cricket and far from experiencing culture shock, found common ground with her opponents. “They’re so culture-driven as well,” she says. “It was a really good tour and awesome to captain. It’s an awesome thing that we were able to go over there and represent our country and represent our mobs.”
Gardner’s mob on her mother’s side are the Muruwari people of central west New South Wales. The all-rounder will represent them again this year in her seventh Imparja Cup campaign, something she says is vital in maintaining ties to her culture but also showing a generation of players coming in below her that there is now a clear path to the big time.
“I see myself as a role model for younger, aspiring Aboriginal kids playing sport on the whole, but mainly in cricket,” Gardner says. “It’s definitely something you want to show to the Aboriginal community, that if you put your mind to something and you’re determined to achieve something you can do it no matter what culture or race you are.
“If kids are saying ‘well Ashleigh Gardner represented her country in cricket so I can’, or using other people’s names, it’s definitely something that would be pretty awesome to hear.”
For now she is content to play the long game but the ultimate goal is Southern Stars selection and the security of a Cricket Australia contract, but she won’t set herself any kind of deadline. “If I put in the hard work, hopefully within the next couple of years I’ll be picked.”
At the very least, the endless summer of the past year has prepared her for the demands that would come with international cricket. “It’s a good and bad thing, not having a break,” Gardner figures. “You don’t get out of touch if you are in form. For your body you kind of want a break I guess, so I’ll probably be tired by the end of this season.
“Most of the Australian girls don’t get a break either, so playing all 12 months is something I’ve got to get used to if I do want to represent the country. It’s a good experience.”
So far her WBBL season is going solidly on a personal note, though the Sixers suffered an unfortunate repeat of their sluggish start to last season, when six consecutive losses preceded a charge home to qualify for the final.
Gardner’s twin threat places her well in the most hectic format and in games in which she’s missed out in one discipline she’s tended to thrive in the other. “Both skills haven’t worked at the same time yet but hopefully I’ll begin to start taking wickets and making runs at the same time,” she says.
“In T20 you don’t have much time to make mistakes. If you bowl a bad ball you’ll be hit for a four or six, which isn’t ideal, and with the bat you’ve to be playing attacking shots so there’s a risk there.”
She is under no illusion about the level of commitment required to achieve her goals. “You look at Meg Lanning and how much time and effort she puts into her game, hence why she’s the best batter in the world,” she says. “I look to people like her and Ellyse Perry, as far as how committed they are to the game. Hopefully in the next couple of years you’ll see my name up in the same category as them.”
Gardner has an omen on her side. Until playing commitments accelerated this year she’d been observing a rite of passage for New South Wales cricketers headed for the big-time, working for Australian cricket kit godfather Harry Solomons at Kingsgrove Sports Centre – also the first career move of the brothers Waugh and Michael Clarke.
For now Solomons at least has his star employee as a walking billboard. Gardner’s Kingsport brand bat bears the colours of the Aboriginal flag and her batting gloves feature the word “Deadly” down one finger – a nod to her heritage but also, as the cricket world is beginning to discover, an apt warning to opposition bowlers.
