Aboriginals aiming beyond boundaries

Organisers hope a tour of England by young indigenous Australians can assist the reconciliation process in their homeland

When the aboriginal athlete Kathy Freeman romped to 400 metres gold at last summer's Sydney Olympics she became the symbol of Australia's effort to achieve reconciliation towards its indigenous people through sport.

That process has taken one small but significant step forwards with the arrival in England of the Aboriginal Youth cricket team – a group of players who have overcome prejudice, poverty and geographical isolation to provide a challenge to one of Australian sport's traditional bastions of male domination.

The side has already played at Lord's, the home of cricket, and were introduced during the final Test at The Oval to their heroes – the Australian Test team, which includes the opening bowler Jason Gillespie, who is one of just a handful of players of aboriginal descent to have reached the highest level of the game since it was introduced to Australia by settlers more than two centuries ago.

The team of 16- to 20-year-olds includes players from the Torres Strait Island off the country's north-east coast, one full-blooded aborigine and a direct descendent of a man who was in the first "Australian" team to play in England 133 years ago – a side led by the English entrepreneur Charles Lawrence but otherwise consisting entirely of aborigines.

Over three weeks the team will play nine games in a tour itinerary designed to trace the steps of the 1868 tour party. The team manager, Grant Sarra, whose son Jacob is the side's wicketkeeper, said his mission was to instill in the players a sense of their heritage and the values of "caring, sharing and respect".

But amid suggestions that cricket could be viewed as the antithesis of aboriginal values, he sought to downplay the importance of the game in the process of the country coming to terms with its treatment of indigenous people. He said: "I don't like the word reconciliation and I don't want to play the race card. The young men need to understand their spiritual connections and their cultural obligations.

"Unbeknown to them they will be seen as role models to a future generation and will be contributing to a more reconciled Australia. That won't happen as a result of a tour of England by a group of boys – and I don't want them to be burdened by politics and society."

The tour coincides with the arrival in Europe of aboriginal activists who plan to set up a camp outside Buckingham Palace as part of a campaign to highlight the mistreatment of indigenous people before the Queen's visit to Australia in October.

Meanwhile, the Aboriginal Youth team, nicknamed the "Downunders", have found a powerful ally in their coach, Ashley Mallett, a widely-respected international spin bowler in the 1970s and '80s, who became committed to breaking down the barriers he witnessed as a player.

Now a prolific author, Mallett is putting the finishing touches to a book on aboriginal cricket, hopes to help establish a national academy for young aboriginal players in Brisbane and is behind a campaign to create a triangular tournament for indigenous teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

He said: "There is still prejudice; we have had apartheid for 100 years. Just because it is not on the statute book it does not mean it is not there."

Mallett, who remains in close contact with Steve Waugh's world-beating Australia team as one of their bowling coaches, added that his sport needs to match the integration of indigenous people found in rugby league and basketball. "Sport is one way of helping children stay at school for longer," he said, "and an academy would be a great bonus – although some would doubtless accuse me of advocating apartheid in reverse."

Members of the team, who were meeting each other for the first time when they congregated in Brisbane before flying to England, are enjoying what for most of them is their first trip outside Australia – but all of them talk of the tour's wider significance.

Kieren Gibbs, 16, from the ranges of Toowomba, two hours' drive from Brisbane, said: "This is about much more than just playing cricket – it's an incredible experience." The captain, Barry Firebrace, a 20-year-old from Melbourne who is one of a handful of the touring team rated as a potential professional player, said: "If an aborigine goes into his local cricket club he feels intimidated. If he goes into a rugby club then seven of his mates will be there – and they'll all be the stars."

Kevin Thomas, who lives with his English father and aboriginal mother in the suburban Northern Districts said: "This is the next step for the aboriginal people because there have previously been a lot of barriers to us playing cricket."