Cal and Tom don the green and gold

By Aiden Box 

A PAIR of talented Gippsland cricketers have recently returned home from the United Arab Emirates where they donned the green and gold for the country. 

Inverloch Cricket Club’s Callum Asbury and his great mate Thomas Robertson of Ellinbank Cricket Club and Poowong Footy Club represented Australia in the recent Deaf International Cricket Council (DICC) T20 Champions Trophy. 

Speaking to the Sentinel-Times on the weekend, Asbury opened up on what the trip was like for the Aussie squad and himself, while explaining the parameters of deaf cricket. 

“The trip was amazing, it was a fantastic experience for everyone, the conditions were tough over there it was 40 degrees burning hot, but we acclimatised to the weather really quickly,” he said. 

“You have to have over 55 decibels of hearing loss, for me I’m profoundly deaf in both ears but I have a cochlear implant that helps me hear.

“When we play cricket, we have our implants and hearing aids off so its complete silence, it’s funny because we bowl one and it looks like it snicks off the bat and everyone appeals,” Asbury said.  

“That’s my favourite part about it, we have that competition with the umpires because we think it’s come off the bat when realistically it hasn’t, it switches on more focus.” 

For those wondering, 55 decibels is approximately the volume of a normal conversation. 

The Australian squad were faced with tough conditions throughout the tournament, playing on the quick, dusty pitches in Ajman, north of Dubai providing a brand-new experience for many of the young guns. 

Having debuted for Australia in India in 2018, the 2022 Champions Trophy was Asbury’s second time donning the green and gold overseas and seeing his young teammates make their own debuts was a huge highlight for him. 

“To see the young blokes debut, I knew what they were feeling but they were fantastic, I took a catch off one of them for his debut wicket it was great,” he said.

“Probably the biggest highlight for all of us was that we were able to improve from our Ashes tour we had in Brisbane back in June.”

The Stingrays quick didn’t leave all the learning to the youngsters, he learned some valuable lessons himself.

“Having experienced India was probably step one of my career but UAE was fantastic, I knew what I was walking into, but it taught me the experience of sub-continent grounds - tough to bowl on,” he said. 

Despite being well established in the Australian Deaf Cricket setup, Asbury had to work quite hard for his selection to the recent series as did Robertson. 

“The selection process starts off with, for me, the Deaf Cricket Victoria program, we have a squad of 15 and that squad play their best cricket in the NCIC (National Cricket Inclusion Championships) and the Australian coaches and selectors come down to those matches and select a squad of the best,” he said. 

“The NCIC has five states competing South Australia, New South Wales, Western Australia, Victoria and Queensland, and they pick the best 20 from that and then do a very intimate training program and then they pick the squad of 14 or 15 depending on where we’re playing.”  

Seeing the hardwork pay off with another Australian cap was an incredible feeling for the right armer. 

“Being able to represent my country is a spinetingling feeling, when you know you’re one of the 15 best deaf cricketers in Australia, being able to represent your country with pride and joy, wear the green and gold and to be a role model for those younger generations coming through,” Asbury said. 

Asbury is a fast bowler and can often be seen opening the bowling for the Stingrays A1 side in the LDCA, he is no slouch with the bat though and had a strong Champions Trophy tournament, taking his first three international wickets from 15 overs opening the bowling and making 23 runs from four innings batting low down the order. 

As for Robertson, he is a tall, thundering fast bowler with tons of talent, he claimed two wickets from his seven overs in the tournament and made two runs from his two innings also batting low in the Aussie line up. 

“I’ve known Tom since 2016 when we played deaf footy together, I had the pleasure of presenting his debut cap to him, he’s an allrounder he opens the bowling and he’s got a bit of hard-hitting power to him,” he said. 

“He goes by the name ‘lone wolf’, he’s fantastic I love him, he’s a genuine allrounder of a bloke, we were going to play for Victoria together but obviously COVID hit, it was good to represent Australia with him.”  

As a team, the Aussies won just the one game from their three in the pool stage of the tournament, defeating Bangladesh who ended up knocking them out in the Elimination Final as India claimed the title over South Africa. 

Regardless of the results not falling his way, Asbury was hugely grateful for what the tournament has done for him and for deaf cricket. 

“Deaf cricket has changed my life, it gives us an opportunity to showcase our talent and ability, it allows me to express myself as a cricketer and also create opportunities in the hearing world,” he said.

“If it wasn’t for my deaf cricket I wouldn’t gone to where I am now playing for Inverloch, it always allows me to improve on my cricket and take back home what I’ve achieved, we’re trying to promote deaf cricket as an important thing for those who can’t showcase their abilities were trying to push it out there.”

The Australian quick gave his thanks to those that’ve helped him on his journey and threw his encouragement behind anyone looking at getting involved in deaf cricket.