Eggmolesse savours dominant NICC campaign

He’s been the batter of the tournament at the National Indigenous Cricket Championships in Alice Springs this week, but Tyran Eggmolesse hasn't lost any sense of perspective.

Eggmolesse, who plays for Brisbane club Northern Suburbs, began the week with a blistering 113 from just 61 balls against Tasmania and four days later struck 108 from 53 balls against Western Australia. Yet, as a 22-year-old boilermaker and father to a one-year-old girl, the powerfully built Queenslander’s life back home is busy and he has little time to concentrate on the game he loves.

“My little girl is the boss,” Eggmolesse said proudly. “She’s been carrying a bat and ball around since she was 10 months old. She’s been watching me play, been to a few of my games, she loves being outside and mucking around. I’m trying to push her towards cricket but who knows?

“I think this week has really made me appreciate what I’ve got back home because I do miss it. It was hard to come away and leave my little girl.”

Another source of Eggmolesse’s gratitude this week comes from the fact he was called into the Queensland Men’s squad only a couple of weeks before the tournament. This is his fifth time representing the state’s Indigenous team, but he missed last year’s edition due to injury.

“To come away to a tournament like this is a privilege,” he said.

“You’re representing everyone, your community back home. I’d taken it for granted a bit before. But, getting left out last year and then being called up late this time has made me appreciate being here a lot more. You’ve got to take those opportunities with both hands and see what you can do with it.”

He’s definitely taken this opportunity, driving Queensland into the final against NSW at Traeger Park in the Red Centre on Monday. In his five innings so far at the unseasonably rain-affected championship, Eggmolesse has scored 312 runs at an average of 62.4, including a remarkable 30 sixes.

“I’ve never really scored so many runs out here. It’s a bit of luck, things go your way and it’s been my few days, I guess I’ve been hitting the middle a bit and getting a few big hits away.

“I wasn’t originally selected to come away. So I’ve been basically just trying to prove myself to show that I’m capable of playing in a tournament like this.

“There have been some pretty good bowlers here. You’re playing at a national championship, so there are some pretty good cricketers.”

Remarkably, the self-confessed ‘cricket nuffy’ has played mostly 5th grade for Northern Suburbs, though he has moved up the grades somewhat with some good performances this season. In his early days at the club, he was selected for his bowling.

“I think it was my second or third year at the NICCs, our old coach put me up to open the batting and I had a couple of little handy knocks here and there - but nothing quite as eye-catching as this week.

“On Monday, that first hundred, it was something I’ll always remember. It was my first hundred apart from just playing park cricket back home.

“Underneath grade cricket at home there’s what they call ‘warehouse’, which is just sort of hit-and-giggle, blokes turn up hungover and all that, and I scored a few runs there. It was pretty easy though. This has been much better.”

The Final of the National Indigenous Cricket Championship Men’s Division starts at 3.30pm Central Time on Monday. The Women’s Final starts at 11am.