HannahDarlington

Hailing from Western Sydney, Kamilaroi woman Hannah Darlington had an unusual introduction to the game. In primary school, she accidentally hit a teacher in the head with a ball and was given a choice of attending detention or joining the cricket team.

Choosing cricket proved the right choice and Darlington signed her first Sydney Thunder contract aged 15 ahead of WBBL|03.

Darlington made her Thunder debut in WBBL|05 in 2019, on the same day as her Year 12 English exam and went on to claim that season’s Young Gun award, and a year later, was named in the official Team of the Tournament as her club claimed their second title.

She made her NSW Breakers debut during the 2019-20 WNCL season and in February 2021, at 19 years and 31 days, became the youngest-ever captain in New South Wales' 165-year history of senior cricket teams when she filled in for an absent Alyssa Healy.

Darlington was selected for an Indigenous team which toured the United Kingdom in 2018 as a celebration of the 150th anniversary of the 1868 Aboriginal tour of England, and was included in an Australia Under-19 side that toured New Zealand in 2019.

That was followed by her senior Australia call-up for a tour of NZ in March 2021, and while Darlington did not debut on that trip, she got her maiden ODI and T20I caps later the same year during a home series against India.

Darlington was named as a reserve for Australia’s 2022 ODI World Cup squad, but later withdrew from the tournament, opting to instead take a break from the game after a second summer spent on the road in quarantine and Covid-safe bubbles took a toll.

She played just seven matches in WBBL|08 after missing the first half of the tournament with a knee injury but was back to full fitness and top form in WBBL|09, taking 22 wickets.