Haydn's driving ambition for honours

North Lakes resident Haydn Brumm lives and breathes cricket.

He has already captained the Australian squad for cricket players with an intellectual disability (ID) and has set his sights on more honours.

The 31-year-old hopes to be part of the National Cricket Inclusion Queensland ID squad to face other states and territories ahead of an international tournament.

It would be another step in a career which started at the age of 14 and has been supported by the NDIS (National Insurance Disability Scheme).

Through cricket Brumm heard of the scheme and applied for funding from Carers Queensland’s NDIS Local Area Coordination Partner in the Community Program for the Sunshine Coast region.

“It has helped me find a great support team and they help me get out and about more often,” said Brumm, who also plays indoor cricket at Strathpine.

“One of my goals was to play cricket at the top level and I did this in 2017 when I debut for the Australian ID team when we toured the UK.

“I was very lucky to be named the vice-captain on my first Australian tour. Then I was named captain for the team during the global games in Brisbane in 2019.”

Yet Brumm admits he had a lot of “self-doubt” in the beginning.

“I started when I was 14, playing junior cricket,” he said. “Playing cricket has been one of my biggest passions and I am still enjoying it to this day.

“I had a lot of self-doubt when I was playing junior cricket and coming up through the ranks because at that stage, I had never heard of playing disability cricket.

“But as soon as I discovered it, I gave it a good red-hot crack and have enjoyed it ever since.”

The ID team is one of three Australian national disability squads that took part in the Commonwealth Bank International Cricket Inclusions Series - Blind, Deaf and Intellectual Disability – in Brisbane in June this year.

They played five T20 internationals and three one-day internationals against England.

Commonwealth Bank's partnership with Cricket Australia also makes cricket the only non-paralympic Australian sport to have fully funded national disability squads.

One of Australia’s ID senior assistant coaches, Nathan Dodd, introducing Haydn to the NDIS and has an impressive coaching and playing history, locally and overseas.

They include being a consultant development coach for the NSW men’s squad and head coach of T20 premier league team the Pokhara Rhinos.

“I have a brother with an intellectual disability, we played cricket in Lismore growing up and that’s one of the reasons Cricket Australia asked me,” he said.

“I’m grateful to be involved and to give back to that cohort of cricketers, it’s fun and really rewarding.

“Despite losing our series, we won a couple of our games which was great for the players.

“What was really great was that the teams were getting some media attention and coverage.”

International Day of People with Disability (IDPwD 2022), on Monday December 3, will also focus on the achievements of people with disability.