The Konstas effect – Breaking cricket into the Greek community

The name Sam Konstas was on everyone’s lips recently, the teen cricket sensation was making all the headlines and was in conversation with all within the Greek community.

Now there’s hopes he can be a game changer in many ways.

Neos Kosmos spoke with Nick Hatzoglou, who has worked at Cricket Australia, AFL and Football Australia in multicultural strategy and grassroots programs, about Konstas’s eye catching start to Test cricket.

When asked if he thinks Konstas will have a big impact on getting Greek Australians, especially younger generations, into the sport, he said time will tell.

“Everyone loves to see a role model or to see someone like them that’s already made it, and that usually has a big effect, sends a big ripple through the community and the young people,” he said.

Hatzoglou said Konstas has become a hero within the Greek community and had everyone talking, even his elderly mum.

“Even my mum’s generation, when they hear of a Greek doing really well, because Konstas went through the community, he was everywhere, they realise and they think’ oh, that’s one of us that’s made it. So that becomes a big point of curiosity.”

He thinks that Konstas’s debut will be talked about for decades, not just Greeks, but all cricket and Australian sports fans.

“A few of us have been called him Achilles now because he was so dominant and he did something that was really special,” Hatzoglou said.

“I think in 50 years’ time, they’ll still be talking about it, because it was that compelling.”

Greeks and cricket

Australia’s cricket team has long been Anglo dominated, even though around a quarter of the population was born overseas and a big chunk who are of other descent.

According to the 2021 census, there were 424,750 Australians of Greek descent.

When people think of Greeks and sport, everyone looks to soccer, and justifiably so.

We’ve seen Greek AFL and tennis players too but not a lot people realise that Greeks have been in cricket.

Hatzoglou said there is representation in administration and at grassroots level too but “a song and dance is not made about them and that’s why we assume that Greeks aren’t playing.

Sunshine Hearts Cricket Club in the western suburbs of Melbourne has had a number of Greek members, players, committee and presidents said Hatzoglou.

Jason Gillespie is Australia’s first Indigenous male Test cricketer but he is also of Greek heritage on his mum’s side.

Marcus Stoinis, a mainstay of Australia’s team over the past decade, is another of Greek background.

At domestic level in NSW and Western Australia there was Steve Nikitaras, who also played for Greece’s international team from 1990 to 2011.

His son Blake Nikitaras currently plays for NSW and Sydney Thunder.

Channel 7 sports reporter in Melbourne, Theo Doropoulos, played for Western Australia and South Australia in the Sheffield Shield across a career that included a memorable cameo as a sub fielder for Australia in 2009.

Hobart Hurricanes bowler Patrick Dooley has Greek heritage on his mum’s side, and his sister Josie Dooley plays for the South Australian Scorpions in the WNCL.

Also at the Hurricanes is Peter Hatzoglou, Nick’s son, who bowled against Konstas last week.

Hatzoglou is disappointed to see Cricket Australia and state organisations like Cricket Victoria not publicly celebrating the diversity, particularly of the players.

“We don’t see that highlighted, so they blend in,” he said.

“We’ve seen numerous Greeks that have represented in first class cricket and now the latest, Konstas in the national team, which is been absolutely magnificent.”

Breaking into a new market

Hatzoglou is all about using sport to promote social cohesion and community building and he thinks now is a good opportunity for cricket to break into new markets, including the Greeks.

Cricket is huge for the South Asian market and Hatzoglou understands why Cricket Australia and other member states have had to embrace them, but to him that’s the “low hanging fruit”.

“They don’t need conversion to the game. They’re absolutely already converted,” he said.

“Where the challenge lies is for cricket authorities to embrace people from African backgrounds, Chinese backgrounds and in some ways European too, because Greeks are represented and Italians and others, but we don’t see it celebrated.

“We don’t see it put up in lights. So there’s something missing.

“That’s where the real challenge lies for cricket authorities.

He would love to see a more sophisticated approach into embracing those communities.

While the challenge is there to break into the Greek Australian market, several inroads have been made by Hatzoglou and others to connect with Greece.

Building a bridge to Greece

Around 2010, the Australian Hellenic Cricket Federation was formed by a group of people to marry up cricket with their Hellenic roots.

They established a relationship with the Hellenic Cricket Federation in Corfu.

Cricket has been played in Corfu since 1823, when it was introduced by the British who occupied the Ionian Islands, but remains a minor sport in Greece, with almost no media coverage around the country.

Two successful tours to Greece took place before they hit a stalemate due to the COVID pandemic and internal challenges in Greece.

“We were really keen to utilise cricket to help those third generation Greeks born in Australia to use cricket to go on tours to Greece,” Hatzoglou said.

This would help them connect with their roots utilising cricket as a common vehicle.

“That’s still is our dream.”

Cricket will be reintroduced at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, United States, the first time since 1900, expected in Twenty20 format.

The Hellenic Cricket Federation is said to be keen to top up their team with Australian born players of Greek heritage.

“It’s very mouth-watering,” Hatzoglou said.

“We all crave for that sort of opportunity to eventuate, but we have a hurdle with Greek citizenship, passports and it’s been very frustrating.

“We hope to someday give an opportunity to these young players in premier cricket that might have aspirations but could probably never ever play for Australia, but they could certainly represent Greece, and potentially in the Olympics.”

James Nanopoulos was one name he said who has had a distinguished career in Victoria, and went on the Corfu tours, who is “jumping out of his skin” to represent Greece.