Kerr stands tall in Indigenous cricket

IT’S hard to picture a 21-year-old as one of the experienced members of any team, but for North Dandenong cricketer Alex Kerr, he’s done it all when it comes to representing his state and his Wurundjeri heritage.
In his seventh year playing for Victoria’s Imparja Cup team, a competition for Indigenous Australians, Kerr has been captain in 2011 and loves the heightened level of competition
“It’s awesome – it gets bigger and bigger every year and we’ve got a very young side,” Kerr said. “So it’s very exciting to see the young fellows coming up.
“When I started it was more of a social tournament – now we’ve put under high performance structure, so it’s a state tournament and features elite cricket.”
“You get a chance to tour the world if you make the Australian squad – the opportunities now compared to when we started are massive so it’s great to see it progressing and improving every year.
“Victoria finished third in last year’s competition, its best finish to date and Kerr said the team will go into the Imparja Cup this year as a favourite.
“We had our best year ever in our history at the tournament – we came third and just missed out on the grand final which was a big step as normally we’re not up with the big teams,” he said. “Now we’re pretty much favourites to make the finals so we’ve really grown as a group.”
Kerr has been the Indigenous Cricket Scholarship holder in Victoria, which helped him afford playing professional cricket for premier team North Melbourne and is looking to pass the scholarship on to another outstanding indigenous cricketer.
“Being the first Aboriginal to get a Premier Cricket scholarship was pretty exciting,” Kerr said. “I had the scholarship for two years and I’m looking for someone else to get the scholarship to hand it over to them.
Looking for a positive person, who is committed to Victorian cricket and hopefully has a future in cricket.
That scholarship really helped me get into Premier Cricket with travel and gear – so the scholarship is definitely for anyone who’s willing to give it a go.”
Kerr has returned from his North Melbourne duties to play with North Dandenong, to be close to home to help out his family.
His Wurunjeri ancestry is important to Kerr and he wants to help other young Indigenous cricketers reconnect with their heritage.
“It’s (Wurundjeri heritage) massive and means a lot to me, I wear my heritage on my sleeve,” he said. “My background and my family and everyone around. My mum’s a Wurunjeri elder, so she’s pretty high up in the ranks and my Aunt Joy does the Boxing Day celebrations.
“She’s coming away with us to the tournament to teach some of these boys and she’s helping the boys out and just trying to get the boys back into their communities.”
Another North Dandenong cricketer, Clay McCartney, is also part of the Victorian Imparja Cup team.The tournament runs from 17-23 February in the Northern Territory.