Sydney Sixers star Dan Christian returns to UNSW Cricket Club
Daniel Christian, renowned T20 cricketer, returns to his roots at UNSW Cricket Club after nearly two decades
Published on the 23 October 2020
One of the world’s leading T20 cricketers, Daniel Christian, returns to his home club, UNSW this weekend for the double-header against UTS North Sydney (10am) and Gordon (2:30pm) at David Phillips South.
Christian, 37, first played for UNSWCC as a 14 year old in 1997-98, taking part in the Under 16s AW Green Shield, as a member of the club's inaugural squad in the competition.
He played 10 seasons for the club, taking 269 wickets and making 5605 runs across nearly 200 games, before leaving in 2007-08 for a contract with South Australia. This started a journey that took him all over the cricketing world.
Christian has played for no fewer than 16 T20 clubs globally – Barbados Tridents, Brisbane Heat, Deccan Chargers, Delhi Daredevils, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Hobart Hurricanes, Melbourne Renegades, Middlesex, Multan Sultans, New South Wales, Rising Pune Supergiant, Royal Challengers Bangalore, South Australia, Trinbago Knight Riders and Victoria – and joins the Sydney Sixers this season.
Dan has played 19 ODIs and 16 T20Is for Australia and won 8 T20 titles worldwide, making him the 6th “winningest” T20 player of all time.
Born in Narrandera, Dan is a proud member of the Wiradjuri tribe. He captained Cricket Australia’s 2018 Aboriginal XI on its commemorative tour of the UK (the 150th anniversary of the original tour, the first by any Australian cricket team) and has become a leading spokesperson on Indigenous issues in the game.
The Bees were able to take advantage of Christian's move home to NSW after an offhand conversation with Sixers' captain Moises Henriques prompted the call from the team in magenta.
"We were just chatting one day and I mentioned my desire to head back to Sydney at some stage and look to finish my career where it started," Christian told cricket.com.au. "It was more of a casual chat between Moises and I to start with and then it just snowballed from there and it's come to fruition. I'm a blue bagger, I always have been. I'll always go for New South Wales in the State of Origin. Cricket's taken me to other places and given me other opportunities … but to be able to cap it off (by) playing back in my home state and having the SCG as my home ground again, it's really enticing. Not everyone gets that opportunity."
He returns home this Sunday to the Bees.