Australia's Scott Boland appeals for lbw on India's Ajinkya Rahane, but is was not given on the fifth day of the ICC World Test Championship Final between India and Australia at The Oval cricket ground in London, Sunday, June 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth) There is a startling quietness in Scott Boland’s face. He exudes the feeling of a dignified man walking his kids in a park but he is bowling out of his skin in the World Test Championship, stabbing few decisive blows into the Indian heart. “He doesn’t show much emotion, does he? Always calm, composed,” says his life mentor Paul Stewart, the man who guided Boland through the labyrinthine lanes of his psychological terrain, getting him reacquainted with his aboriginal roots. “To see someone like him up there winning games for Australia, it’s been a dream. It’s a great hopeful message for the entire community. We are all so proud,” Stewart had told The Indian Express.
That ‘someone like him’ is the real significance behind Boland’s achievements at the international arena.
In his mid 20’s, Scott Boland discovered that his maternal grandfather was adopted and was actually an aboriginal.
“I am not sure whether his grandfather was removed from his family but it’s not uncommon to find out late in lives about aboriginal heritage. That’s been our lot,” Stewart says. “Growing up as an aboriginal in the 60s was a very tough time. We didn’t have voting rights. Babies were taken away from aboriginal women.”
Outside the MCG, next to the Scar Tree which is a significant tree for Aboriginal people. L-R Image Paul Stewart, Ashleigh Gardner & Scott Boland.
Every country has its dark guilt and this was Australia’s. From the early 19th century till 1970 Aboriginal children were forcibly removed from their families as part of the Australian government plan to assimilate them into the dominant non-indigenous population. The establishment had ill-treated the indigenous population so much so that in 2008 the government, under the prime ministership of Kevin Rudd, issued a formal apology to the “stolen generations”.
There is a famous Aboriginal heartache of a song called ‘The Brown Skinned Baby’ by Bob Randall. The lyrics went “In a native camp I’ll never forget, a young black mother, her cheeks all wet, ‘My brown skin baby, they take him away ‘. Between her sobs I heard her say, police been taking my baby away. From white man was that baby I had. Why he let them take the baby away …The child grew up and had to go from the mission home that he loved so much. To find his mother, he tried in vain. Upon this earth they never met again.”
A few years back, Boland’s uncle would delve into family roots and discover the aboriginal blood. By then, Boland and his brother Nick had begun playing professional cricket and both would get very interested in playing for an Aboriginal team. Enter Paul Stewart.
“We used to run an annual cricket tournament when I saw him first with his brother Nick. To be part of that you have to be indigenous and that’s when we got talking. More than just qualifying, Scott wanted to know more about the aboriginal history and culture,” says Stewart who is a proud Taungurung man who worked with Cricket Australia as their indigenous cricket expert when he ran into Boland a few years back.
This is a Scott Boland FC. pic.twitter.com/2SNECz4nJv
— alooparatha (@itssash10) June 11, 2023
Stewart remembered the one time Boland, normally composed, was so moved. It was at a special dinner at Harrow, a small town halfway between Melbourne and Adelaide, home of Johnny Mullagh, the most popular Aboriginal player who starred in Australia’s first ever tour of England in 1868. In 2018, Stewart had taken Boland, the fourth aboriginal man to don the baggy green, to Harrow, the spiritual cricket home of aboriginal cricketers.
“That experience of that private quiet dinner was the most touching moment for him. I remember him saying, “It’s so amazing that I have the privilege of carrying their names and I got to meet their descendants”. In 2018, the Boland brothers had made it to the Australian Aboriginal team that toured England to commemorate the first-ever tour. Each player was given a name to ‘carry’ on the tour, name of a player from the original 1868 tour. Scott was given the name Gulligan from the player from the original team Yellanach aka Johnny Cuzens. His brother Nick represented Gronggarrong (Mosquito).
“Mosquito and Cuzens were brothers just like the Bolands. During our visit to Harrow before going on tour – Nick got to meet Aunty Fiona Clarke (Descendent of Mosquito) who designed the walkabout wickets artwork logo which was used in out touring uniforms,” Stewart says. “Scott also had the opportunity to meet Aunty Vicki and Ashley Couzens (descendent of J Cuzens)”
“This is a true wow factor that I will carry into this tour and for the rest of my life,” Stewart remembers an emotional Scott Boland telling him when he met with the descendants of the original team.
***
All that inspiring background might have faded out without the achievement in the international arena. He made a dreamy start to Test cricket, capturing 6 for 7 against England at MCG, with thousands punch-drunk on him, bellowing his name ‘Scotty Scotty!’.
His performances in the WTC final has shown that he isn’t a fly-by-night operator.
It’s his fingers that are worth watching out for in the visual footage of his bowling. A measured run-up, and he brings himself to full height, as he releases the ball, open-chested. It’s the fingers that do the real damage. At times, it’s right behind the seam as he backspins it into the (right-handed) batsmen. Often, the index-finger is on the leather, adjacent to the seam, and presses down on the cherry as he cuts across the seam, bending the ball back into the batsmen. Like Shubman Gill in the first innings, who shouldered arms to receive an aural shot of doom from the stumps.
Like Virat Kohli, in a probing sequence on the final day. One came in, another held its line, and then he pushed one fuller, wider, and the seam titled the other way, sucking Kohli into a fatal chase.
Ravindra Jadeja too would have noticed the fingers and the wrist in the action replay from the dressing room. This one cut away from round the stumps, luring Jadeja into a push down the line of what he thought was an incoming ball. Edge and gone.
Often, he also whips down on the ball at release, extracting extra bounce as Gill found out in the second innings, the ball exploding off a length, taking the piece of edge along with it.
Above all, more than the fingers, the wrists, the impassive gentle face, is his history that stands out.
Kohli falls! 😮
Scott Boland strikes early on Day 5 for the Aussies 👏
Follow the #WTC23 Final 👉 https://t.co/wJHUyVnX0r pic.twitter.com/sOVm3n8HDW
— ICC (@ICC) June 11, 2023
As part of the education, he started visiting the historical places sacred to aboriginals in Western Districts. Waterholes, communities, and eventually he found his way to Harrow, where Johnny Mullagh museum is now the pride of the town.
“We would initially talk about how perhaps, it was the decision of the grandfather not to tell anyone about his heritage. Because of so many challenges that we face. I remember telling Scott, ‘Mate, you are really lucky because so many other families are not so lucky’. That stuck with him and he wanted to learn more and how he can help the other more disadvantaged kids. He would talk about how to embrace the culture,” Stewart says. “We would go to the Western districts, talk to the aboriginal families there, and be welcomed by them.”
How is it now for the Aboriginals in 2021? “Our life expectancy is not where non-aboriginal people have. There are tough living conditions out there still,” Stewart says. “We never got into wealth or inheritance. The Aboriginals have to make their own future. We look after each other. There are tough communities out there who are struggling with poor housing, health, and education. Still there is a lot of work to be done. That’s the challenge.
SMITHY! THEN BOLAND AGAIN!
Two wickets off the Scott Boland over, with Kohli gone off a tremendous Steve Smith catch!
The Aussies are five wickets away >> https://t.co/Pb14TdTpRG pic.twitter.com/Dc5i9YzcBo
— Fox Cricket (@FoxCricket) June 11, 2023
“It’s nice to see Scott get into it.”
One could sense the pride and emotions in Belinda Duarte, the first Indigenous member of MCG Trust and a descendant of Dick-a-Dick, a team-mate of Mullagh on that historic first tour, when she handed over the Mullagh medal to the man of the match Boland after his debut Test.
“Some would even say the old people have had something to do with this,” she said. “We carry our old people everywhere. There were so many indicators today that they were by his side.”
Around that time, Stewart got a call from a pub. His face had lit up as he recognised the callers were from the pub in Harrow. “Laughter, tears, and joy flowed in the call,” Stewart would say. “Their Scotty, our Scotty, was doing us proud. I couldn’t have visualised this day even in a dream.” It felt befitting that Boland had a hand in the match-winning moment, pouching the catch to signal Australia’s resounding triumph to add yet another chapter in his dreamy resurgence.
Stay updated with the latest sports news across Cricket, Football, Chess, and more. Catch all the action with real-time live cricket score updates and in-depth coverage of ongoing matches.
9 min read
