Indigenous squad chosen for elite camp

A 13-man squad of indigenous players chosen mostly from last month's Imparja Cup will attend a specialist training camp at the Commonwealth Bank Centre of Excellence in April. Tim Nielsen, the CBCE head coach, said the development program would give the players further training and competition opportunities beyond the Imparja Cup, which is Australia's all-indigenous cricket carnival in Alice Springs.

"Identifying and nurturing talented indigenous players are aspects of Australian cricket's broad strategy to open up the game to wider audiences," Nielsen said. "We want to give this group of cricketers more opportunities to play and train and set an environment for them to really start honing their skills."

Jason Gillespie, whose grandfather was a Kamilaroi warrior, is the only Australia Test player who has acknowledged Aboriginal links, and Cricket Australia is aiming for more representation from the indigenous community. "We hope that some of the players in this development squad can step up within their state programs and teams," Nielsen said, "and take a real view to the future with Australian representation in mind."

The squad, which starts the camp in Brisbane on April 3, was chosen by a five-member panel including John Harmer, the Northern Territory Institute of Sport head coach, and Belinda Clark, the CBCE manager. Six players were nominated by the state associations and another seven were chosen from the Imparja Cup honour squad that was announced after the carnival.

The squad Ryan Bulger (ACT), John Lalor (NSW), William Lee (Tas), Joel Liddle (Vic), Brian Manning (NT), Wayne Norman (WA), Peter O'Callaghan (ACT), Pat Rosser (NSW), Bradley Stout (Qld), Kevin Thomas (SA), Preston White (Qld), Worrin Williams (Qld), Jamie Wyatt (NT), Jason Smith (coach, Qld), Larry Budd (manager, Qld).