Dual athlete Caoimhe Bray only celebrated her 15th birthday last month, but two of the nation’s biggest sporting codes are already fighting over her signature.
The teenage prodigy, a goalkeeper for the Junior Matildas, recently signed a three-year deal with the Sydney Sixers, with the young all-rounder a chance of making her Women’s Big Bash League debut this weekend.
Bray, born and raised in the New South Wales’ Hunter Region, has been named in the Sixers’ 13-player squad for Sunday’s season opener against the Melbourne Renegades at Adelaide Oval. If selected, she’ll become the youngest cricketer in Big Bash history, a record currently held by Australian all-rounder Annabel Sutherland.
“It definitely has come around really quickly,” Bray told reporters on Friday.
“I’m not complaining though … I just take it day by day.”
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Bray, a school student in Year 9, doesn’t have a driver’s license, so rather than commuting from Newcastle to Sydney for every training session, the budding athlete will reside in Coogee during the WBBL season and complete her school term online.
“Mum normally drives me everywhere … she’s kind of my manager,” Bray laughed.
“A few of my school friends ask me, ‘When are you going to come back to school?’ I’m like, ‘Probably not this term’.
“I guess in Year 9 it’s not too much of a biggie, but Year 11 and 12 it might get a bit more serious.”
It’s been a whirlwind 12 months for Bray, who topped the run-scoring charts during last summer’s NSW Under 18 Brewer Shield, notching 955 runs across the season, including four hundreds. In the final, she cracked 202 from 134 balls to lead Greater Hunter Central Coast towards its maiden title.
She was the youngest member of the Australian Under-19 squad for last month’s tri-series in Brisbane, scoring 84 (76) and taking 4-20 during a 119-run victory over New Zealand at Ian Healy Oval.
Bray, the youngest of six siblings, represented the Sixers during this month’s T20 Spring Challenge, taking five wickets in four matches including the prized scalp of Brisbane Heat powerhouse Laura Harris, who had smacked a 46-ball century against the Sydney Thunder earlier that week.
Sixers coaching staff advised the right-armed seamer, who had never previously played against adults, to target Harris’ head or toes – her first delivery was short and pulled for four, the second was full and knocked over the pegs.
The following week, Bray’s mother received a phone call from Sixers general manager Rachael Haynes, with the teenager overhearing their conversation from the other side of the house.
Haynes wanted to offer her the final spot on the Sixers’ roster.
“My mouth was wide open,” she recalled.
“I seriously was speechless.”
Bray, one of the country’s most promising young goalkeepers, made her international football debut during the AFC Under 17 Women’s Asia Cup in Indonesia. Although she is currently juggling both sports, she’ll eventually be forced to commit her time to one, a decision she’s yet to make.
“I did get a few questions after I got signed for the Sixers,” Bray said.
“I’m still playing soccer. I want to keep doing them both for as long as I can and this WBBL contract isn’t going to stop me from playing soccer.”
Asked which sport she prefers, Bray responded: “I don’t know, I seriously don’t know.
“I’ve brought the soccer ball down (to Sydney) so I might go down to the park and kick a ball around. But right now I can’t do much training because my team’s up in Newcastle and I’m staying down in Sydney for these few months.”
Bray has inevitably drawn comparisons to Australian superstar Ellyse Perry, a childhood hero and her new Sixers captain. Perry represented her country in both sports at age 16, competing at the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup and making 18 appearances for the Matildas before committing to cricket.
“Perry’s definitely been a role model of mine since I was very, very young,” Bray said.
“If you ask all my primary school friends, every school project was about her, that’s for sure.
“I don’t think it’s scary or overwhelming being compared to her because she’s such a great person and I just love that people are even saying it.
“Being compared to Ellyse Perry is obviously super cool, but in the end I still am my own person.”
An 11-year-old Bray attended Australia’s match against India during the 2020 T20 World Cup, posing for photos with Perry and future Sixers teammates Ash Gardner and Alyssa Healy.
“If you’d told me that day at the World Cup game, that four years later I’d be playing in the WBBL, I would honestly not believe you,” Bray said.
“That day Ellyse actually got out for a golden duck and I remember mum telling me that I was crying in the stands when that happened.”
Bray dons the No. 8 shirt when playing cricket in tribute to Perry, but when asked to choose a different number for her Sixers kit, she decided to honour another sporting hero – Sydney Thunder captain Phoebe Litchfield.
“Obviously I wanted to get Pez’s No. 8,” Bray explained.
“I also look up to Phoebe Litchfield, another young gun who is also from the country in New South Wales, so this season I got No. 18.”
Litchfield, who also made her Big Bash debut during her teens, acknowledged the WBBL’s willingness to give future superstars a platform to shine.
“I only have to look back to when I started,” Litchfield told reporters earlier this week after being unveiled as the youngest WBBL captain in history.
“The Thunder took me in as a 16-year-old and I probably wasn’t ready to play, but they stuck with me and I’ve seen first hand the love and support that the club gives their players. It gives me great joy to just become part of that and to hopefully foster that environment and lead our group.
“Caoimhe and the young girls coming through, there’s so much talent and I think the WBBL does a great job at unleashing that talent.”
The Sixers will face the Renegades at Adelaide Oval on Sunday, with the first ball scheduled for 5.10pm AEDT.
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