Alex Keath

Alexander Keath
Personal information
Full name Alexander Robin Keath
Born (1992-01-20) 20 January 1992
Shepparton, Victoria Australia
Batting style Right-hand bat
Bowling style Right arm medium
Role Allrounder
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
2010– Victoria
2013–2015 Melbourne Stars
Source: Cricinfo, 19 October 2015

Alexander Robin Keath (born 20 January 1992) is a cricketer and an Australian rules footballer who currently plays grade cricket in South Australia and is on the rookie list of the Adelaide Football Club in the Australian Football League. He formerly played professional cricket for Victoria in Australian domestic cricket.

Early life

Born in Shepparton in northern Victoria, Keath completed his schooling at Melbourne Grammar School.[1][2] He was a talented junior in both football (as a key defender) and cricket (as a batting all-rounder), and drew the attention of professional recruiters from both sports. In 2009, after excelling at under-18s football for the Murray Bushrangers in the TAC Cup, he was recruited by the newly established Gold Coast Suns football club, which at that time was recruiting a batch of 17-year-olds to compete in the Victorian Football League in 2010, before it entered the Australian Football League in 2011. At the same time, he had excelled as a junior cricketer, and represented Australia in the 2010 Under-19 Cricket World Cup, and was offered a three-year Cricket Victoria contract.[3]

Cricket career

In April 2010, Keath chose to proceed with cricket, accepting his Cricket Victoria contract. An all rounder who bowled medium pace,[4] Keath made his first-class cricket debut against the touring England team in December 2010.[5] Over the following five years, he failed to earn a regular spot in the Victorian team, playing a total of seven first-class matches and sixteen List A matches, averaging less than twenty with the bat in both formats, as well as five Twenty20 matches for the Melbourne Stars.[6] He played premier cricket for Melbourne during that time, scoring 2101 runs at 35.01 and taking 79 wickets at 19.62.[7]

At the end of the 2014-15 season, Keath lost his Cricket Victoria contract.[8] He spent the 2015 season playing in England in the Birmingham Premier League, and upon his return to Australia signed for South Australian Grade Cricket club Prospect.[9] On December 8, 2015, Keath was signed by the Adelaide Strikers in the Big Bash League.[10]

Football career

Despite being drafted to the Gold Coast Suns in 2009, Keath was eligible to be drafted as a Category B rookie from 2013 as he had not played for an Australian rules football club at any level for three years. His shift to South Australian grade cricket attracted the attention of football recruiters, and in October 2015 he was signed by the Adelaide Football Club as a Category B rookie. Despite being on the football club's list, cricket remains Keath's primary focus through the 2015-16 season; Adelaide's recruitment of him is in the hope that he will switch to football at the end of 2015-16.[11]

References

  1. ↑ Warner, Michael (9 March 2010). "VFL for teen ace Alex Keath". Herald Sun. Retrieved 17 December 2010.
  2. ↑ "Alexander Keath". Australia/Players. ESPNCricinfo. Retrieved 17 December 2010.
  3. ↑ Michael Warner (9 March 2010). "VFL for teen ace Alex Keath". Herald Sun (Melbourne, VIC). Retrieved 28 November 2015.
  4. ↑ Brydon Coverdale (29 April 2010). "Alex Keath chooses cricket over AFL". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 28 November 2015.
  5. ↑ "Victoria v England XI: England in Australia 2010/11". CricketArchive. Retrieved 17 December 2010.
  6. ↑ "Alex Keath". Cricket Archive. Retrieved 28 November 2015.
  7. ↑ "VCA 1st XI Career records 1889-90 to 2014-15, I-M" (PDF). Cricket Victoria. Retrieved 28 November 2015.
  8. ↑ Emma Quayle (30 April 2015). "AFL clubs keen to speak to discarded cricketer Alex Keath". The Age (Melbourne, VIC). Retrieved 28 November 2015.
  9. ↑ Andrew Capel (17 October 2015). "Former Victorian Bushranger Alex Keath prepared to ’earn his stripes’ in pursuit of Redbacks spot". The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA). Retrieved 28 November 2015.
  10. ↑ AFL rookie Alex Keath signs with BBL
  11. ↑ Courtney Walsh (29 October 2015). "Crows keen on luring cricketer Alex Keath back to AFL". The Australian. Retrieved 28 November 2015.

External links

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