Alana Maria King (born 22 November 1995) is an Australian international

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er. She also plays domestic cricket for

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

in the

Women's National Cricket League The Women's National Cricket League (WNCL) is the national domestic 50-over competition for women's cricket in Australia. Featuring seven teams—one from every state, plus the Australian Capital Territory—each season's winner is awarded the ...

(WNCL) and the

Perth Scorchers The Perth Scorchers is an Australian domestic Twenty20 franchise cricket team representing the Western Australian city of Perth in the Big Bash League (BBL). The Scorchers are the current BBL Champions, having defeated the Sydney Sixers in the ...

in the

Women's Big Bash League The Women's Big Bash League (known as the WBBL and, for sponsorship reasons, the Weber WBBL) is the Australian women's domestic Twenty20 cricket competition. The WBBL replaced the Australian Women's Twenty20 Cup, which ran from the 2007–08 ...

(WBBL). An

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are consi ...

, she bowls right-arm

leg spin Leg spin is a type of spin bowling in cricket. A leg spinner bowls right-arm with a wrist spin action. The leg spinner's normal delivery causes the ball to spin from right to left (from the bowler's perspective) when the ball bounces on the ...

and bats right-handed. She previously played for

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

and

Melbourne Stars The Melbourne Stars are an Australian Twenty20 franchise cricket team, based in Melbourne, Victoria that competes in Australia's Twenty20 competition, the Big Bash League. The Stars wear a green uniform and play their home matches at the Melb ...

Early life

King was born in Clarinda, a suburb of

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, Victoria. She is of

Anglo-Indian Anglo-Indian people fall into two different groups: those with mixed Indian and British ancestry, and people of British descent born or residing in India. The latter sense is now mainly historical, but confusions can arise. The ''Oxford English ...

descent, her parents both having emigrated from

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

(the capital of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

, India) to Melbourne. King followed her brother's footsteps by pursuing an interest in cricket after trying out different sports such as

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

. Tennis was her first sport of choice as she took up the tennis racquet at the age of five and competed in the Tennis Victoria Pennant which was the largest tennis inter-club representative competition in Australia. She also served as a ball kid during the women's singles final of the

2011 Australian Open The 2011 Australian Open was a tennis tournament featuring six different competitions, and part of the 2011 ATP World Tour, the 2011 WTA Tour, ITF Junior Tour and the NEC Tour, as tournaments for professional, junior and wheelchair players wer ...

. She also had a brief stint with her school softball team and also turned up for Monash University Baseball Club.

Domestic career

King was handed her first rookie contract at the age of 16 in 2012 with VicSpirit in the Women's National Cricket League and three years later down the line, she bagged a surprise call-up to Melbourne Stars for the inaugural edition of the WBBL in 2015–2016 season. She leapfrogged into the senior Victoria squad in 2016. She also had a successful

2021–22 Women's Big Bash League season The 2021–22 Women's Big Bash League season or WBBL, 07 was the seventh season of the Women's Big Bash League (WBBL), the semi-professional women's Twenty20 domestic cricket competition in Australia. The tournament was played from 14 October ...

by emerging as the joint fifth highest wicket-taker in the season with 16 scalps. In April 2022, King was bought by the

Trent Rockets Trent Rockets are a franchise 100-ball cricket side based in the city of Nottingham. The team represents the Historic counties of England, historic counties of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire in the newly founded The Hundred (cri ...

for the 2022 season of The Hundred in England. On 13 August 2022, during a group stage match between Trent Rockets and

Manchester Originals Manchester Originals are a franchise 100-ball cricket side based in the city of Manchester. The team represents the historic county of Lancashire in the newly founded The Hundred competition, beginning in the 2021 season, and playing at Old ...

, she claimed a hat-trick against Manchester Originals and became the first woman to take a hat-trick in The Hundred. In the same month, during a group stage match between

Oval Invincibles Oval Invincibles is a franchise 100-ball cricket side based in South London. The team represents the historic counties of Surrey and Kent in the newly founded The Hundred competition, which took place for the first time during the 2021 Engl ...

and Trent Rockets at the 2022 Hundred edition, King achieved a unique feat by delivering 10 consecutive dot balls to become the first player to achieve the milestone in the history of The Hundred.

International career

In April 2019,

Cricket Australia Cricket Australia (CA), formerly known as the Australian Cricket Board (ACB), is the governing body for professional and amateur cricket in Australia. It was originally formed in 1905 as the 'Australian Board of Control for International Crick ...

awarded her with a contract with the National Performance Squad ahead of the 2019–20 season. In January 2022, King was named in Australia's squad for their series against England to contest the

Women's Ashes The Women's Ashes is the perpetual trophy in women's international cricket series between England and Australia. The name derives from the historic precedent of the Ashes in male cricket and, until 2013, was similarly decided exclusively on the ...

. She was included in Ashes squad as replacement to injured

Georgia Wareham Georgia Lee Wareham (born 26 May 1999) is an Australian cricketer who plays for the national cricket team as a leg spin bowler. At the domestic level, she plays for Victoria and the Melbourne Renegades. In April 2018, she played six matches o ...

and

Sophie Molineux Sophie Grace Molineux (born 17 January 1998) is an Australian cricketer from Bairnsdale, Victoria. A left-arm orthodox bowling all-rounder, Molineux has been a member of the national women's team since 2018. At domestic level, she currently pl ...

but she was picked up in the squad over

Amanda-Jade Wellington Amanda-Jade Wellington (born 29 May 1997) is an Australian cricketer. She bowls right-arm leg spin and plays for the South Australian Scorpions in the Women's National Cricket League (WNCL) and the Adelaide Strikers in the Women's Big Bash Leagu ...

as a surprise package with selectors opted to leave out Amanda-Jade Wellington in order to allow her play for Australia A team. She made her

Women's Twenty20 International Women's Twenty20 International (WT20I) is the shortest form of women's international cricket. A women's Twenty20 International is a 20 overs-per-side cricket match between two of the International Cricket Council (ICC) members. The first Twent ...

(WT20I) debut on 20 January 2022, for Australia against England. Later the same month, she was named in Australia's team for the

2022 Women's Cricket World Cup The 2022 ICC Women's Cricket World Cup was the twelfth edition of the Women's Cricket World Cup, which was held in New Zealand in March and April 2022. It was originally scheduled for 6 February to 7 March 2021 but was postponed by one year due ...

in New Zealand. She made her

Women's Test match Women's Test cricket is the longest format of women's cricket and is the female equivalent to men's Test cricket. Matches comprise four-innings and are held over a maximum of four days between two of the leading cricketing nations. The rules gov ...

debut on 27 January 2022, for Australia against England in the one-off Women's Ashes Test. She made her

Women's One Day International Women's One Day International (WODI) is the limited overs form of women's cricket. Matches are scheduled for 50 overs, equivalent to the men's game. The first women's ODIs were played in 1973, as part of the first Women's World Cup which was ...

(WODI) debut on 3 February 2022, also for Australia against England in the Women's Ashes. Therefore, she earned her first cap in all three formats of international cricket in the space of fourteen days. In April 2022, she received her first contract with Cricket Australia after her splendid performances with the ball throughout the cricket summer. She was the second highest wicket-taker for Australia during the successful 2022 World Cup campaign for the Aussies as she picked up 12 wickets in the tournament at 24.50 in nine matches including a spell of 3 for 64 against England in the all important final. She was also the fourth joint highest wicket-taker during the tournament in what is considered to be a career defining performance for her which would later make her first-choice player in the Australian team. In May 2022, King was named in Australia's team for the cricket tournament at the

2022 Commonwealth Games The 2022 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Birmingham 2022, was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations that took place in Birmingham, England bet ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

, England. In January 2023, King was named in Australian team for 2023 Women's T20 World cup.

References

External links

* *
Alana King
at

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:King, Alana 1995 births Living people Cricketers from Melbourne Australian expatriate cricketers in the United Kingdom Australian people of Anglo-Indian descent Australian sportspeople of Indian descent Anglo-Indian people Australian women cricketers Australia women Test cricketers Australia women One Day International cricketers Australia women Twenty20 International cricketers Melbourne Stars (WBBL) cricketers Sportswomen from Victoria (state) Victoria women cricketers Western Australia women cricketers Perth Scorchers (WBBL) cricketers IPL Supernovas cricketers Cricketers at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Australia Commonwealth Games medallists in cricket Trent Rockets cricketers 21st-century Australian women 21st-century Australian people People from the City of Kingston (Victoria) Medallists at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Expatriate sportspeople in England