Former carpenter Doggett eyes Ashes debut after chipping away

After spending years carving out a name for himself in Australian domestic cricket, qualified carpenter Brendan Doggett is now eyeing a second life as a test bowler and a dream debut in the Ashes.

Doggett chipped away on building sites and on the fringes of the test squad in relative obscurity but injuries have opened the door for the 31-year-old paceman to make a name for himself in the series-opener against England in Perth on Friday.

He is expected to join Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland in an Australia pace attack that no-one saw coming, not least the South Australia quick.

“I don’t know how ready you can be for test cricket,” Doggett told reporters in Perth on Monday.

“But the last 18 months to two years has easily been the most successful … in terms of numbers (of wickets), but also just confidence in my body, confidence in my game.”

Country cricket and building houses

Doggett said his phone had been blowing up with messages from “tradie” mates he once mixed with doing carpentry jobs in the Queensland town of Toowoomba while juggling his cricket aspirations.

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“I was playing country cricket and working as a carpenter, and that was the dream for me,” he said.

“I (would) go back to Toowoomba …. put the nail bag on and keep building houses. I loved that life.

“This is all just a bonus.”

Doggett would become just the third Indigenous Australian to play test cricket following fellow pace bowler Scott Boland and mentor Jason Gillespie, the former South Australia coach.

Boland’s test debut against England in the 2021/22 Ashes on home soil is now part of cricket folklore.

He took seven wickets in the Boxing Day test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and 6-7 in the second innings to consign England to a crushing defeat that ensured Australia retained the urn.

Australia’s Indigenous communities are well represented in professional Australian Rules football (AFL) and the National Rugby League but athletes are relatively scarce in elite cricket.

Who welcomed us so warmly even though we just did what we had to do.

Boland said it would be a boost for Aboriginal communities to see both him and Doggett in the test XI.

“It’ll obviously be really special for him and his family and the Australian Indigenous community,” Boland told reporters.

“Cricket is not as big in the Indigenous communities as what AFL and rugby league is, so hopefully we can try and shift it there, I guess.”