Photo Credit: Cricket NSW
Cricket legend Alex Blackwell was among the five NSW sports greats inducted into the Hall of Champions at Sport NSW’s Champions of Sport Awards at the Star Event Centre in Pyrmont on November 25.
Blackwell’s induction into the Hall of Champions was a fitting tribute to her illustrious career as a cricketer spanning 15 years that saw her as Australia’s 17th women’s Test captain and the first Australian woman to play over 200 international matches.
Blackwell played 251 matches for Australia across Test, One-Day International and Twenty20 formats, scoring more than 5,000 runs and also winning five World Cups.
She captained Australia to their first T20 World Cup victory in 2010.
The leading run-scorer for the NSW Breakers between 2001 and 2018, Blackwell won an incredible 13 Women’s National Cricket League titles, including seven as captain.
She also captained Sydney Thunder to victory in the inaugural Women’s Big Bash League in 2015. Thunder’s WBBL Player of the Year award is named the Alex Blackwell Medal in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the game.
The first woman to be elected to the Cricket NSW Board, she has been a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion in sport.
NSW Cricket walked away with multiple awards during the Champions of Sport ceremony, including the NSW Blind and Low Vision team that was named the Team of the Year with a Disability, and its coach Jason Stubbs from Cricket NSW and Blind Sports and Recreation named the Administrator of the Year.
The other Hall of Champions inductees alongside Blackwell were Murray Braund (Surf Lifesaving), Patti Dench (Sports Pistol), Suzy Batkovic (Basketball) and Tim Gavin (Rugby Union). Sydney Swans AFL great, Paul Kelly, was elevated to Legend of NSW Sport status, while Olympian Jessica Fox OAM and Paralympian Lauren Parker were named Athlete of the Year and Athlete of the Year with a Disability, respectively.
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Name of Author: Cricket NSW
Cricket NSW, officially the New South Wales Cricket Association, is the governing body for cricket in New South Wales, Australia. Based at Sydney Olympic Park, it oversees the New South Wales Blues, New South Wales Breakers, Sydney Thunder, and Sydney Sixers.
