Sammy-Jo Johnson (born 5 November 1992) is an 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 who plays as a right-arm medium-fast bowler and right-handed

batter Batter or batters may refer to: Common meanings * Batter (cooking), thin dough that can be easily poured into a pan * Batter (baseball), person whose turn it is to face the pitcher * Batter (cricket), a player who is currently batting * Batter ...

for

New South Wales Breakers The New South Wales Women cricket team, also known as the New South Wales Breakers, is the women's representative cricket team for the Australian State of New South Wales. They play most of their home games at North Sydney Oval and they also us ...

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 ...

and

Sydney Thunder The Sydney Thunder are an Australian franchise professional cricket team, competing in Australia's domestic Twenty20 cricket competition, the Big Bash League. Along with the Sydney Sixers, the Thunder are the successors of the New South Wale ...

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 ...

. In the former competition, she played for

Queensland Fire The Queensland Women cricket team, also known as the Konica Minolta Queensland Fire, is the women's representative cricket team for the Australian State of Queensland. They play most of their home games at Allan Border Field, Brisbane and they ...

from 2011 to 2020 before joining the Breakers for

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

. In the latter competition, she played for

Brisbane Heat The Brisbane Heat are an Australian men's professional Twenty20 franchise cricket team that competes in the Big Bash League. The Heat wears a teal uniform and are based in Brisbane in the Australian state Queensland. Their home ground is the Br ...

from the first season of the competition in 2015–16, until she signed for the Thunder for

Early life and career

From Lismore in New South Wales, Johnson attended Blue Hills College,

Goonellabah Goonellabah is the eastern suburb of Lismore, New South Wales, Australia, and is on the Bruxner Highway. At the 2006 census, Goonellabah had a population of 12,527 people. The City of Lismore has its main offices on Oliver Avenue in the suburb. ...

. She started playing cricket at the age of 12, after having watched it since she "was a little kid". As a young cricketer, she was inspired by

Brett Lee Brett Lee (born 8 November 1976) is an Australian former international cricketer, who played all three formats of the game. During his international career, Lee was recognised as one of the fastest bowlers in the world. In each of his first two ...

, and sometimes, after taking a wicket, she would emulate him by jumping in the air or doing "the chainsaw". By the 2007–08 season, Johnson was regularly playing as the opening bowler for Clunes boys Under-16s team on Saturday mornings, and then for the Easts third grade men's team on Saturday afternoons. In February 2008, she was selected in the all-girls NSW Combined Independent Schools team, which, under the captaincy of

Ellyse Perry Ellyse Alexandra Perry (born 3 November 1990) is an Australian sportswoman who has represented her country in cricket and association football. Having debuted for both the national cricket team and the national soccer team at the age of 16, s ...

, competed in the NSW Schoolgirls Championship the following month. Subsequently, Johnson was named in the NSW Under-16 girls All Schools team and the NSW Under-17 and Under-19 girls squads, and attended training with the Australian Under-18 girls talent squad.

Adam Gilchrist scholarship

In 2010, Johnson became the second female player to receive 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 ...

scholarship, through which she travelled to the UK to play for five months for the

Cumbria Women cricket team The Cumbria Women's cricket team is the women's representative cricket team for the English ceremonial county of Cumbria. They play their home games at various grounds across the county. In 2019, they played in Division 3 of the final season of ...

in the north of England. She was selected to play in the County Firsts and Northern Leagues Firsts teams, helped coach Under-10 and Under-13 county teams, and also attended school-based programs and holiday camps. Soon after arriving in England, playing for Cumbria in a match against a leading junior boys representative side, Johnson took 3-22 from eight overs, and then recorded her first ever century, by scoring 110 in her team’s total of 173. Over the five months of her scholarship, she had much success, taking took more than 60 wickets, and compiling just under 1,000 runs. At about that time, however, she was told that there was no place for her in the star-studded NSW Breakers senior team.

Senior domestic career

In the spring of 2011, Johnson was encouraged by Queensland Fire coach Andy Richards to become involved in Brisbane Grade cricket, with a view to winning Fire selection. Just three weeks after joining the Western Suburbs grade team, and at the age of 19 years, Johnson was selected to debut for the Fire in a

Twenty20 Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single innin ...

match against the

ACT Meteors The Australian Capital Territory Women cricket team, also known as the Abode Hotels ACT Meteors, is the women's representative cricket team for the Australian Capital Territory. They play most of their home games at Manuka Oval, Canberra and the ...

. The match ended in a tie, with Johnson taking 1-18 off three overs; when the scores were still level after a super over, Queensland eventually won on a countback. In Johnson's next T20 match, also against the Meteors, she bagged 3-9 off four overs. Later that season, in a match against the NSW Breakers that proved to be Johnson's season's highlight, she dismissed internationals

Alyssa Healy Alyssa Jean Healy (born 24 March 1990) is an Australian cricketer who plays for the Australian women's national team and New South Wales in domestic cricket, as well as the Sydney Sixers in the WBBL. She made her international debut in Februa ...

Alex Blackwell Alexandra Joy Blackwell (born 31 August 1983) is a former professional cricketer who played for New South Wales and Australia as a specialist batter. In October 2017, she made her 250th international appearance for the Australian women's cricke ...

and

Lisa Sthalekar Lisa Carprini Sthalekar (born 13 August 1979) is an Australian cricket commentator and former cricketer and captain of the Australia women's national cricket team. In domestic cricket, she represented New South Wales. She was a right-handed all ...

in the space of two overs, and recorded the figures of 3-14 over four overs, as the Breakers made a record-low 9-82. Johnson finished the 2011–12 T20 season with 10 wickets from eight matches at 12.50 and an economy rate of 5.43. In the Fire's one day campaign, she bowled 18 overs in four matches and took a combined 2-76, with a best performance of 2-28 off eight overs against the

South Australian Scorpions The South Australia Women cricket team, also known as the Statewide Super South Australian Scorpions, is the women's representative cricket team for the Australian State of South Australia. They play their home games at Karen Rolton Oval, Adel ...

. Johnson has been a member of the Brisbane Heat squad since its inaugural WBBL01 season (2015–16). In November 2018, she was named in

's squad for the

2018–19 Women's Big Bash League season The 2018–19 Women's Big Bash League season or WBBL, 04 was the fourth season of the Women's Big Bash League (WBBL), the semi-professional women's Twenty20 domestic cricket competition in Australia. The tournament ran from 1 December 2018 to 26 ...

. In 2021, she was drafted by

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 inaugural season of The Hundred. She was the leading wicket taker for Trent Rockets with 15 wickets.

References

External links

* *
Sammy-Jo Johnson
at

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 ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Sammy-Jo 1992 births Living people People from Lismore, New South Wales Cricketers from New South Wales Australian women cricketers Brisbane Heat (WBBL) cricketers Cumbria women cricketers New South Wales Breakers cricketers Queensland Fire cricketers Sydney Thunder (WBBL) cricketers Trent Rockets cricketers Sportswomen from New South Wales