{"id":27322,"date":"2023-04-17T04:21:20","date_gmt":"2023-04-17T04:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/17\/cricket-mourns-aunty-faith-thomas-first-indigenous-woman-to-play-test-for-australia\/"},"modified":"2023-04-17T04:21:20","modified_gmt":"2023-04-17T04:21:20","slug":"cricket-mourns-aunty-faith-thomas-first-indigenous-woman-to-play-test-for-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/17\/cricket-mourns-aunty-faith-thomas-first-indigenous-woman-to-play-test-for-australia\/","title":{"rendered":"Cricket mourns Aunty Faith Thomas, first Indigenous woman to play Test for Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Australian cricket is mourning the death of Aunty Faith Thomas, the first Aboriginal woman to play Test cricket for Australia, who passed away at the weekend aged 90. Thomas (nee Coulthard) played her groundbreaking Test for Australia against England at Melbourne\u2019s Junction Oval in February 1958, when she became the first Indigenous woman to represent an Australian sports team.<\/p>\n

Thomas was awarded the Order of Australia in 2019 for her services to cricket and her dedication to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in a long nursing career. Retrospectively awarded a baggy green cap as the 48th<\/sup> Australian woman to play Test cricket, Thomas is honoured every year by the Adelaide Strikers playing for the Faith Thomas Trophy in the WBBL. Her legacy also lives on in Adelaide Oval\u2019s Avenue of Honour as a great of the game.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFaith Thomas made a wonderful and groundbreaking contribution to cricket and the community,\u201d Cricket<\/a> Australia chief executive Nick Hockley said. \u201cAs the first Aboriginal woman to represent Australia in Test cricket, Faith was an inspiration to those who have followed and she leaves an indelible mark on the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born in 1933 in Nepabunna, Thomas was born Tinnipha, the daughter of an Adnyamathanha mother and German father. As Faith Coulthard, she was brought by her mother to Colebrook Home in Quorn in South Australia\u2019s Flinders Ranges where she began playing improvised cricket on dirt roads using a homemade bat and a rock if there was no ball.<\/p>\n

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<\/svg><\/span>Faith Thomas, first indigenous woman to play Tests for Australia, in a 2015 portrait.<\/span> Photograph: Darrian Traynor\/CA\/Cricket Australia\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A fast bowler, Thomas joked that her fearsome speed was the result of \u201cchucking stones at galahs\u201d, but only in her late teens did she learn women played organised cricket. Thomas was invited to participate in a club game in Adelaide and the power she generated from just a few paces of run-up made her an immediate star. In her first season with Windsor she took a hat trick and 6\/20, and in one famous game against Adelaide Teachers College returned the remarkable figures of six wickets for no runs.<\/p>\n

After just three club matches, Thomas was selected to represent South Australia and then chosen in a side to play the touring English team in a warmup game in Brisbane. There, a legend was born. Thomas bowled a delivery to dismiss English captain Mary Duggan that was so fast the middle stump was sent cartwheeling and Duggan sat on the pitch laughing at her helplessness against the pace.<\/p>\n

The following year, in 1958, Thomas made her Test debut. The Sydney Test was washed out and in Melbourne she was bowled sparingly. After carrying the drinks in Adelaide her career quietly ended. Although chosen to tour England and New Zealand, Thomas was a desert woman uncomfortable at sea so baulked at the overseas tour.<\/p>\n

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<\/svg><\/span>Faith Thomas poses with Megan Schutt and the Faith Thomas Trophy in Alice Springs ahead of a Women\u2019s Big Bash League in 2018.<\/span> Photograph: Jason McCawley\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Instead, she went to the docks to wave off the team and dedicated herself to a nursing career. As a girl at Colebrook, Thomas had been inspired by two caring woman she called Sister Hyde and Sister Rutter. \u201cThose two women trying to look after all those little blackfellas, I don\u2019t know how they didn\u2019t go mad,\u201d she later recalled. \u201cI used to think things just happened or were coincidence but now I look back, I\u2019ve seen a lot of miracles.\u201d<\/p>\n

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