Nestled within the picturesque port town of Albany, 2024-25 Kookaburra WA Community Cricket Female Country Volunteer winner Rachel Badger has created an environment for kids of all abilities to thrive when participating in club cricket.
Country Volunteer Taking Cricket to New Heights in Albany
Born from the desire of creating a safe space for her son to play the game he loves, Rebecca set out to create and organise a team of Star Blasters within the town.
“My son has autism and he was struggling in the normal Master Blasters as it was at the time,” Rachel said.
“We asked the question ‘why there wasn’t anything for kids like him?’ so I sort of went from there and we started up Star Blast here in Albany.
“It means that children and families have somewhere to play cricket, they can still play when they wouldn’t be able to before,” Rachel said.
“I have families come back every year now because their kids love it so much.
“My son actually still plays and now has dreams to go play in the Integrated Cricket League.”
After running the program for the last seven summers, Rachel said there is one memory that stands out to her which highlights why programs like Star Blast are so important.
“I had a little boy start with me and he only preferred the males and by the end of the season he refused to go to anyone else but me and would only play cricket with me,” she said.
“I took that as a huge win that I was doing something right.”
Not just spending her time volunteering in Star Blast, Rachel splits her time helping to grow the game for girls and women.
“Pretty much anything to do with women’s cricket, I am there and involved in it,” she said.
“I am one of the coordinators, I do all of the social media, and I run our Sunset Scorchers program.”
Having seen girl’s and women’s cricket explode in popularity, Rachel is looking forward to the summer sun cresting over the hills and the sound of cricket balls sounding around the port city soon.
“I’m excited to see it continue to grow and for everyone to get to play the game,” she said.
“Everyone deserves to play the game and if that means I’m doing the work that’s fine because then I can see kids like my daughter playing cricket.
“Kids of all abilities and genders can play, it is just so rewarding at the end of the day to know that we are there for them.”