ISLAND LIFE

Erin Fazackerley has had a lot to smile about recently. The 19-year-old was signed to play with the state’s first professional women’s cricket teams – the WBBL Hurricanes last year and Roar this year – and was named in the Governor-General’s XI squad for last week’s T20 clash against England in Sydney.

“It was massive for me because it’s the first time I’ve been noticed by cricket selectors nationally,” says Fazackerley, whose aunt Kim was the first Tasmanian female cricketer to play for Australia.

“It’s my first year with the Tasmanian Roar, which is the 50-overs competition across Australia. Across the country there’s quite a few girls my age also picking up contracts now that women’s cricket has become professional and more people are getting into the sport. I still work, but I get paid to play now. It’s really exciting for me to realise I could make a career out of this.”

Fazackerley, pictured at Blundstone Arena after being told she’d made the Governor-General’s XI squad, says she began playing cricket in primary school and became serious about it towards the end of her final year at school – when she got “the call to say she’d been selected for the Hurricanes”.

“I’ve always loved playing sport, and cricket in particular, but it wasn’t until I was selected for the Hurricanes and it became a possibility to play cricket professionally that I thought, ‘I can really do this’. I want to keep playing well and working hard here in Tassie. When I was younger, the goal of playing for Australia seemed out of reach, but now it’s a real goal for me.” See the Hobart Hurricanes play in Melbourne next Saturday. Visit

crickettas.com.au for the match details