In team sport, the role of filler is often underestimated. Sometimes undervalued too. They arrive without much fanfare, quietly go about their business and then swiftly walk out of the photo frame when the rightful owner of the team slot returns. The exit is as unknown as the entrance. With two months to go before his 34th birthday, Scott Boland doesn’t have many Test matches left in him, although he can tell you there are miles in his legs yet to be eaten.
He neither has the back-bending toe-crusher of Mitchell Starc nor the average bouncer of skipper Pat Cummins or the pace of his pace. Josh Hazlewood’s “top off” accuracy like the infallible Glenn McGrath is also not his forte.
But with a bowling pace starting in the mid-130s, Boland has shown, in his six Tests so far, fiery energy and the ability to hit tough lengths.
Come Thursday with both Starc and Hazlewood out with injuries, the lethal Victorian is certain to share the new ball with his skipper Cummins.
While he plays grade cricket in the Sheffield Shield for Victoria, Boland captains a club with a very strange name – Frankston-Peninsula.
In fact, in an article published by abc.net.au, the club has been described as the “least glamorous destination” in the Victorian premiership competition.
The description of the location complements the theory.
“Its home field sits awkwardly on a hill between the loading docks of a homesteading center and the little-used Stony Point Railway line.” Boland, who made a forgettable white-ball debut in an inconsequential bilateral money-spinner against India in 2016, could never have actually thought that he would be making his Ashes debut on Boxing Day at his home ground.
At least that’s what their manager Nick Byrnes told codeports.com.au.
The website wrote, “You just have to put your best foot forward, and you know, some bruises… he said to Boland in the tone of a reassuring uncle.” Even his father, Mick Boland, said that he didn’t see his debut coming, leave alone figures of 6/7.
He told codeports.com.au, “No, not really… it was all a bit unexpected.
And a year ago, a well-known UK company, which used to sponsor his bat, decided to stop sponsoring him. Maybe he didn’t see any future then at the age of 32.
Boland is not just any Australian cricketer, but his presence in the set-up has a deep social context.
Boland is only the second indigenous male Test cricketer after Jason Gillespie to play for Australia.
Boland represents the Gullidjan tribe from Colac in Victoria and only learned of his Indigenous heritage after his grandfather passed away.
The indigenous community doesn’t have much representation in mainstream international cricket and every time Boland crosses the line, he carries the hopes, the aspirations, the dignity of his community.
In part four of the Amazon OTT documentary series ‘Tests’, one will see that Boland walks into the Australian dressing room and his allotted seat is near the fridge and coffee machine and not the other way where he gets to sit as a senior. Victorian cricketer.
Captain Cummins was seen saying on commentary that he may not get a chance to play Test again after 12 years of toiling at first-class level to get the baggy green.
“Our record in promoting the indigenous cricketer is shameful. Australia has fallen far short of where it should have been,” Gideon Haigh, undoubtedly one of the greatest cricket writers in contemporary times, was heard saying in the documentary.
Boland himself stated in that docu-series that he understands the value of his identity and what he represents as he travels to remote areas of Australia to help Aboriginal community youth take cricket seriously and promote the sport. Intends to travel to areas of, mainstream your community.
If Boland gets a chance to play the first Test here, he would probably like to talk as he said in Episode No. 2 of ‘Test’.
“The best way for me to be a role model is to keep playing cricket. And being watched. You can’t be what you can’t watch.” Scott Boland wants to be seen. For yourself and for your society.
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