Asbury leads Victoria to NCIC Title

AFTER donning the green and gold on the international stage last year, Inverloch Cricket Club star Callum Asbury has shone on the national stage this past week, leading his state to glory. 

Asbury has impressed all season for the Stingrays, but he again swapped up his duties as one of their opening bowlers to this time captain Victoria in the National Cricket Inclusion Championships in Brisbane. 

“It was probably the toughest experience I’ve gone through; I learnt a lot of things throughout the tournament itself and about a lot of guys on my team, we went through a couple of ups and downs through the week,” he said. 

“We had players who were unhappy and some that were unsure about their role in the team but I made sure I comforted them through that process and made sure they knew that their role in the team was quite valuable.

“Our team gelled together really well, and it was great to see all the guys coming together and playing some good cricket, it was all a team effort and that’s how we won the title.”

The talented quick was again alongside fellow Gippslander’ and great mate Tom Robertson from Poowong and the pair proved to be pivotal on the biggest stage for the big V. 

“Oh, look I’m getting ‘spine tingles’, Robbo and I have worked hard together, and he’s worked on his bowling a lot and put on a couple of kilometres per hour, bowling quicker, which is really good,” Asbury said.

“It was his debut too, he’d never played for Victoria before the tournament, so it was great to see him representing the ‘Big V’ and doing his job and role, he was excellent, especially in the last few overs of the final.”

Asbury led the Vic’s to three wins and two losses throughout the week, this saw them finish second on the ladder, booking them a ticket to the Grand Final, where Asbury won the toss and chose to bat, his side posting 7/172 against first-placed Queensland. 

In a belter of a chase, the Queenslanders needed 44 runs from the final four overs to clinch the National Title.
Enter Asbury and Robertson.

The local pair took the death overs, with the pressure of the championship attached to them, and succeeded with ease, allowing just 30 of the required 44 to seal the win and the title for Victoria by 14 runs!

An awesome accomplishment to the duo’s already incredible career resumes, they’ve made the region proud once again. 

“Well, we had played six straight days of cricket so when I bowled that last ball it was just a massive sigh of relief knowing that we’d worked hard to get to that point,” Asbury said. 

“Victoria has worked hard for the last 20 years, the last time they’d won a title was back in 2003, and we had both our coach and vice-captain a part of it who were part of that 2003 squad,

“It was good to see them finally win again, they all had big smiles on their faces, they knew it was our time and we’d got there, so it was great.”

Asbury also reached an amazing personal milestone along the way, taking his 300th career wicket.  

“Batting wise, I was shocking, I went out for two golden ducks throughout the week but I felt that I bowled well, there was a couple times in the field where I saved a couple of boundaries here and there but it was great to out there playing for my state,” he said. 

“I took my 300th career wicket on Tuesday against Western Australia.”

The pair will now look forward to hopefully donning the green and gold later this year in the hunt for more silverware, but in meantime, they’ll head back to their local clubs. 

“There’s a World Cup coming up in around October or November, location and dates aren’t confirmed yet but it’s definitely that time of year, but I’m looking forward to that and representing Australia again,” said Asbury. 

The title winning captain finished by giving his thanks to those that have supported him. 

“There’s a lot of people but definitely my family, my partner she made it all the way up to Brisbane, along with my grandparents, my mum and dad couldn’t make it unfortunately but were cheering from home and supporting me,” he said.