Sam McFarlane Whiteman (born 19 March 1992) is an English-born-Australian

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 currently contracted to

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 ...

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 ...

. He has also played for Australia A. Whiteman is a

wicket-keeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. Th ...

who bats left-handed.

Early life

Born in

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. In N ...

, Whiteman emigrated with his family to

at an early age, and was raised in Bunbury, in the state's south-west region. Playing cricket from an early age, he toured England with an Australian Schools under-16 representative team during the

2007 English cricket season The 2007 English cricket season was the 108th in which the County Championship had been an official competition. It began on Saturday 14 April 2007 with the match between MCC and the 2006 county champions Sussex at Lord's. Sussex went on to wi ...

, aged 15. Whiteman played representative cricket for Western Australia at both under-17 and under-19 level, and also played several games for the Australian under-19 cricket team in 2009, against the Indian and Sri Lankan under-19 teams. In 2010, he was awarded the

Adam Gilchrist Adam Craig Gilchrist (; born 14 November 1971) is an Australian cricket commentator and former international cricketer and captain of the Australia national cricket team. He was an attacking left-handed batsman and record-breaking wicket-keep ...

Cricket Development Scholarship, which allowed him to spend the 2010 season playing for the Weybridge Cricket Club in the

Surrey Championship The Surrey Championship is a cricket organisation in Surrey running 6 divisions for 1st & 2nd XI cricket, 4 for 3rd XI and 4 for 4th XI. Since 2000 it has been a designated ECB Premier League. The teams competing in the Premier Division in 2020 w ...

, as well as playing several Second XI matches for the

Surrey County Cricket Club Surrey County Cricket Club (Surrey CCC) is a first-class club in county cricket, one of eighteen in the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Surrey, including areas that now form South London ...

. He led Weybridge's runs totals during the season, scoring 572 runs at an average of 44.00.

Domestic career

Having also played for Western Australia's under-23 side in the

Futures League The Toyota Second XI or Futures League is the Australian national second XI cricket competition. Run by Cricket Australia, it is part of its development program and includes the various state and territory second XI teams, from the 2009–10 se ...

, Whiteman was awarded a

Western Australian Cricket Association The Western Australian Cricket Association (known as the WACA) is the governing body for cricket in Western Australia. The WACA was formed on 5 November 1885. In 1893 the association opened the WACA Ground. Elite cricket The WACA is responsible ...

(WACA) rookie contract for the 2012–13 season. He made his debut for Western Australia in the

2012–13 Ryobi One-Day Cup The 2012–13 Ryobi One Day Cup was the 43rd season of official List A domestic cricket in Australia. The competition had the same format as the previous season. The 2012–13 competition was won by the Queensland Bulls. The final was reduced t ...

against

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, scoring 31 runs. His first half-century, an innings of 74, came in a Ryobi Cup match against

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

, and was Western Australia's highest score of the match. Whiteman's highest score at first-class level, 96 runs, was achieved opening the batting against

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

in November 2012. Although usually playing as a

, Whiteman played his first few matches at state level as a specialist

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter (historically, the ...

, although towards the end of the season he took over from

Tom Triffitt Thomas Ian Francis Triffitt (born 13 November 1990) is an Australian cricketer who has played for Tasmania cricket team, Tasmania, Western Australia cricket team, Western Australia, Hobart Hurricanes and the Perth Scorchers. Triffitt attended th ...

as Western Australia's first-choice wicket-keeper. At

grade cricket Grade cricket, also known as Premier Cricket is the name of the senior inter-club or district cricket competitions in each of the Australian states and territories. The term may refer to: *Victorian Premier Cricket * NSW Premier Cricket *Queensl ...

level, Whiteman plays for the Rockingham-Mandurah District Cricket Club, having made his first-grade debut during the 2007–08 season, at the age of 15. In April 2014, Whiteman was selected in the Australia A squad for the 2014 off-season, with the team playing series against

India A The India A cricket team is a national cricket team representing India. It is the second-tier of Indian international cricket, below the full India national cricket team. The team is currently captained by Priyank Panchal in first-class cricket a ...

and South Africa A. In the first match between Australia A and India A, played in July 2014 at

Allan Border Field Allan Border Field is a cricket ground in the Brisbane suburb of Albion in Queensland. The Australian Cricket Academy has been based at the oval since 2004 using it as a base for the development of elite cricketers throughout Australia. It wa ...

, he scored 174 runs batting eighth in Australia's first innings, his first century at first-class level. Whiteman and

Mitchell Marsh Mitchell Ross Marsh (born 20 October 1991) is an Australian international cricketer. Marsh has represented Australia in all three forms of cricket, making his debut during the 2011–12 season. Personal life Marsh is the second son of Geoff Mar ...

, who scored 211 runs, put on 371 runs for the seventh wicket, an Australian record and the second-highest seventh-wicket partnership recorded, behind the 460-run record set by Bhupinder Singh and

Pankaj Dharmani Pankaj Dharmani (born 27 September 1974) is a former Indian cricketer. He played domestic cricket for Punjab and played a single One Day International for India against South Africa in 1996. Pankaj Dharmani made his debut for Punjab in the 19 ...

during the 1994–95 season. The previous Australian record, set by Queenslanders Cassie Andrews and

Eric Bensted Eric Charles Bensted (11 February 1901 – 24 March 1980) was a cricketer who played first-class cricket for Queensland from 1923 to 1936. Bensted, an all-rounder, was the first Queensland player to play in 50 Sheffield Shield The Sheffi ...

, had stood since the 1934–35 season. Whiteman suffered a serious injury whilst keeping wicket to

Mitchell Johnson Mitchell Guy Johnson (born 2 November 1981) is a former Australian cricketer, who played all forms of the game for his national side. He is a left-arm fast bowler and left-handed batsman. He made his Test debut for Australia in November 2007 ...

in the

BBL A barrel is one of several units of volume applied in various contexts; there are dry barrels, fluid barrels (such as the U.K. beer barrel and U.S. beer barrel), oil barrels, and so forth. For historical reasons the volumes of some barrel units ...

final. Repeated surgeries on his hand followed. He returned in 2018 to the Scorchers squad as a batsman only after playing a couple of games for WA Premier Cricket side Fremantle, and played 2 matches in Big Bash 7 after a year out of the game.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Whiteman, Sam 1992 births Australian cricketers Australian expatriate cricketers in England English emigrants to Australia Living people Cricketers from Doncaster Western Australia cricketers Perth Scorchers cricketers Sydney Thunder cricketers Northamptonshire cricketers Wicket-keepers