Alex Blackwell
Sport: Cricket
Year Inducted: 2019
Alex Blackwell is a powerhouse in the world of Australian cricket.
Born in Wagga Wagga in 1983, Alex is ten minutes older than her identical twin sister Kate.
Alex’s international cricketing career spanned 15 years and included many firsts. She was a right-handed batter, an exceptional fielder and a respected leader on and off the pitch.
She was a talented cricketer – a fierce competitor, hard-working and far more often than not, a winner – Alex played an instrumental role in the dominance of both the Australian and New South Wales teams over the last decade.
James Sutherland, Cricket Australia chief executive, 2018
Alex and her twin sister Kate developed their game playing for Griffith East Public School’s 1995 state championship winning girls’ team, and the Griffith Ex-Serviceman’s Cricket Club from 1996-1999. The twins also played for Griffith in representative boy’s teams against neighbouring towns.
The first Australian female cricketer to play over 200 matches for Australia, Alex made 251 international appearances across Tests, One Day Internationals and T20 Internationals, scoring 5,250 runs for her country. She captained the Australian team to their first T20 World Cup victory in 2010 and to victory in the 2011 Ashes series. Alex is a five-time World Cup winner, sharing her first World Cup win in 2005 with her twin sister Kate. Alex scored three centuries for Australia, with Kate her batting partner at the other end on two occasions as she raised her bat.
In 2015, Alex left her job as a Genetic Counsellor to become the country’s first full-time women’s cricketer. Three years later, Alex became the first female elected to the Board of Cricket NSW in their 160-year history.
A long-term advocate for equal opportunity for all people to benefit from sports participation, Alex actively worked towards breaking down barriers to participation for minority groups. In line with this ethos, in 2012, she became the first female international cricketer to publicly come out as gay. She felt great pride in the way her sport stood up in support of marriage equality and was privileged to help Cricket Australia design and implement their trans and gender diverse inclusion policy.
Always at the forefront for the women’s game, advocating for increased pay and more opportunities for women, in 2019 Alex was awarded an honorary doctorate from UNSW for “eminent service to society by advancing important causes”. The following year she received the NSW Office of Sport Trailblazer Award recognising the work she has done in increasing opportunities for participation and leadership for women in sport.
Alex is the all-time leading run-scorer for the NSW Breakers, with 4788 runs at 46.94 from 139 matches, including 11 centuries and 30 half-centuries. Alex played for the NSW Breakers in 17 consecutive seasons, winning 16 national titles, including 10 WNCL titles in a row, and nine national title victories as NSW Captain. Alex also led the Sydney Thunder to win the inaugural Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) title.
After retiring from state and international cricket in 2019, Alex continued to play domestically, for Sydney Thunder, in the WBBL. She played 18 consecutive seasons of elite cricket, retiring at the completion of WBBL05. In recognition of her service to the game, Cricket NSW named the Sydney Thunder WBBL player of the year award the “Alex Blackwell Medal”.
Post-cricket, Alex enjoys educating individuals and teams in sport and business, through keynote speaking and leadership mentoring, specialising in how to achieve sustained high performance in challenging environments. She is also a Genetic Counsellor at Sydney Children’s Hospital, the Head Coach of Sydney University CC’s women’s program and an established cricket commentator.
In January 2022, her memoir, “Fair Game” was released.