Former Australia all-rounder D’Arcy Short to play for WA at National Indigenous Cricket Championships

Former Australia all-rounder D’Arcy Short will feature for WA at the upcoming National Indigenous Cricket Championships. The destructive left-hander, who scored 853 runs across 31 international white-ball games while also taking three wickets with his left-arm leg-spin, is the star inclusion in a 13-player squad who will be aiming to improve on a third-placed finish at last year’s tournament. The championships are comprised entirely of T20 games and will begin on Tuesday in Mackay, ahead of the North Queensland city hosting its first Test match later this year. Since losing his State contract at the end of the 2024-25 season, Short has become a global short-form freelancer, enjoying stints playing alongside Cam Bancroft at Gloucestershire in England’s T20 Blast and in the Nepal Premier League. Brock Larance — who was the leading run-scorer and player of the tournament at last year’s championships — will captain this year’s side. The Willetton all-rounder notched 250 runs at an imposing average of 83.3 in the WA Premier Cricket T20 competition last season. WA’s side also includes Dane Ugle, who won the Olly Cooley Medal for the best and fairest player in WA Premier Cricket in 2017/18, Midland-Guildford batter Hayden Collins and country run machine Bevan Bennell. State-contracted batter Mikayla Hinkley will again feature for WA’s women’s side, who will be out to defend a title they won last year. Hinkley was a key figure in WA’s remarkable Women’s National Cricket League mid-year revival last season, scoring four half-centuries in a 317-run campaign. She will serve as one of the team’s co-captains alongside Midland-Guildford’s Veronica Keen, who played for WA at last year’s under-19 national championships in Perth.