Aussie Rules rejection paying off for Carey and Australia at the World Cup

If things had worked out slightly differently, Alex Carey could be an Aussie Rules football star right now, rather than lighting up the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup.

But the AFL’s loss is very much Australian cricket’s gain and worryingly for any opponents in the knockout stages, he seems to be getting better with every passing game.

Perhaps that shouldn’t come as a surprise because in some ways, the wicket-keeper-batsman who didn’t engage in any serious cricket between the ages of 18 and 21 has been playing catch-up ever since.

Having participated in both sports as a teenager, which included Carey playing Aussie Rules alongside adults by the age of 15, decision time initially came in 2010.

His heart lay with the oval ball as he turned down a rookie contract offer from the South Australian Cricket Association to join the Greater Western Sydney Giants in their preparations to join the AFL – Aussie Rules football’s elite competition – as an expansion team two years later.

A tough, athletic midfielder – traits he eventually transferred back to cricket when the time came – Carey captained the Giants for the 2010 season, played for them again in 2011 but then faced a heart-breaking conversation with legendary coach Kevin Sheedy, who told him he wouldn’t be needed for the step up to the AFL in 2012.

“It’s your dream, I guess, gone in front of your eyes,” Carey has said of that moment.

So the 21-year-old opted to pick up his bat once more and returned to the bottom of the cricketing ladder, making up for lost time every day in the seven years since or as he himself puts it: “I had a bit of an interesting journey through my early 20s. Since then, it’s escalated pretty quickly.”

That escalation – through club level, state level, the Big Bash and then an international debut in January 2018, just six years after essentially starting from scratch – has reached the stratosphere at this World Cup.

Invariably batting at seven, Carey has faced a variety of challenges when coming to the crease and mastered each with aplomb.

When Australia were languishing at 79/5 against West Indies, his measured 45 got them on the right track.

Needing 11 an over against India, he made a quickfire 55 off 35 balls and when a late kick against England was required, he responded with an unbeaten 38.

A then-career-best 71 against New Zealand that helped seal a semi-spot came form a starting spot of 92/5, before his latest salvo immediately bettered that – a swashbuckling 85 that nearly delivered Australia the unlikeliest of victories against South Africa.

That Old Trafford effort was the archetypal innings form the 27-year-old as he married power with precision, a mixture of cuts, drives and muscled slog-sweeps – all demonstrating his impeccable temperament that means he’s to the manor born at the highest level.

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“He's played a couple of crucial innings for us in some difficult circumstances and different conditions,” admitted skipper Aaron Finch following the Proteas game.

“That second game at Lord's on a used wicket against New Zealand was a brilliant run-a-ball 71 and here, he played an outstanding knock but couldn't get us quite over the line.”

Carey’s average at this World Cup is now a superlative 65.80, not to mention his glovework behind the stumps – which has been almost flawless.

And if any more endorsement was needed, then the words of Australian great Steve Waugh in a column for the ICC earlier this tournament tell their own story.

"Alex Carey is a like hybrid of Michael Hussey and Michael Bevan," said Waugh. “Carey plays with the perfect mixture of calmness and intent, assessing the situation and pouncing on any opportunities that present themselves in the frenetic pressure of the final overs.

“He shapes as a potential match-winner for Australia in the back-end of the competition."

Waugh’s words may just prove prophetic and if so, this former Aussie Rules star’s ascent will be complete.

© ICC Business Corporation FZ LLC 2019