We are excited to announce that one of our very own, Ryan Honschooten, has been selected to represent Australia on a world stage at the 2024 Blind & Low-Vision Ashes Series!
The Blind Ashes is part of Australian Cricket’s commitment and vision to be a sport for all. Kicking off this Sunday in the sunny Gold Coast, the series will run until 26 November and will comprise of three ODIs and five T20Is against the England team.
It will be the first time in eight years that the series has run, and it also marks a significant milestone of the 20th anniversary, proving that blind and vision impaired cricket is continuing to go from strength-to-strength.
Ryan, along with fellow cricketer, Michael Berg, are the only two WA based players on the team. Both men represented WA in the National Cricket Inclusion Championships at the beginning of 2024, where Ryan walked away as the leading run scorer for WA in the Blind and Low Vision B1 category.
Ryan has also been part of the West Australian Blind Cricket Club, The Venetians, since 2018 and is now ready to step up on an international stage, playing alongside cricketers from all over the country.
“The whole team are so excited to be there and have wished for this for such a long time. It really means a lot to us” says Ryan.
As well as playing with the whole team, Ryan is particularly excited to be playing alongside previous WA players (who have since moved inter-state), Bradley Brider and Steffan Nero, who are actually the reason he got into cricket in the first place.
Back in 2017, Ryan had no idea about cricket or the massive following it had. “I used to think of cricket as the boring sports game that my grandparents watched on TV” says Ryan. Brad and Steffan were attending the VisAbility school holiday program at the time and introduced the idea of blind cricket to Ryan as they believed he would have a knack for it. As the program went on, they continued to encourage him and would invite him daily to ‘get in the nets and have a hit’.
After getting fed up with the peer pressure, Ryan eventually gave in and decided to head along to their next session… after just one hit, he was hooked! He tagged along the next day, and the day after that. Three weeks later, he found himself representing WA and South Australia in the combined team for the National Cricket Inclusion Championships.
At that time, cricket was still very new to Ryan. He had no official training and was unsure about some of the rules. However, that didn’t stop him from getting involved and having a good time, while managing to take home the best score in the B1 category.
Ever since then, Ryan has been a proud member of the WA Blind Cricket community. A lot of work has been done to get The Venetians team to where they are today. They are now solely representing the state and play regular matches over summer in Perth, with occasional away trips to other locations. They even have their very own sponsor!
The club is dedicated to promoting blind cricket and providing opportunities for players who are blind, sighted, or somewhere in between to participate in the sport. If you’re interested in finding out more, head to their official Facebook page.
To this day, Ryan is extremely grateful and happy that Brad and Steffan got him involved all those years ago. Without them, he wouldn’t be where he is today.
A big congratulations and good luck to Ryan and the rest of the team! We are so proud and will be eagerly cheering on from afar.
If you’d like to follow along with the series, keep an eye on Play HQ for the scoreboard, and follow the Cricket Australia socials for more updates.