Sports Hall of Fame - Aiden Blizzard

Jul 5, 2021

This year, 26 district sporting legends are being inducted to the hall of fame, honour roll and junior honour roll categories in the Greater Shepparton Sports Hall of Fame. The News is featuring stories on each of the inductees in the lead-up to the induction ceremony on August 6. Today News reporter Liam Nash speaks to Aiden Blizzard, who is being inducted to the honour roll.

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When mere mortals walk with the gods; it can be forgiven if they get lost in the shadows.

But there are those rare moments in time; when the chosen few get to stand alongside those who dwell on the higher planes; who get to bask, ever so briefly, in the light of their countenance.

Incredibly, statistically speaking, Shepparton’s Aiden Blizzard and India’s Sachin Tendulkar, were not far apart. For that brief moment.

Today; for Blizzard, cricket is a game he walked away from three years ago to get on with the rest of his life. A simple step for him to reset the next part of the journey. For Tendulkar being a god of the game means cricket and he will be entwined for this life — and beyond.

According to celebritynetworth.com; Blizzard’s career has left him with a bank balance probably slightly north of $1 million. Tendulkar has a bigger problem, how to spend any of his $200 million in a country where he can’t even walk down the street without being mobbed.

That’s the way the cookie crumbles for mortals and their gods.

And through a life of cricket highlights, Blizzard still has no hesitation in picking the biggest of them all.

The night he stood on the boundary of Wankhede Stadium, home of the Indian Premier League’s Mumbai Indians, alongside batting partner Tendulkar.

“We walked out together and, at that moment, I felt like I was in another body,” Blizzard said.

“It’s probably similar to the atmosphere people describe when playing in an AFL grand final.

“I was spellbound; but after six balls I came to; and suddenly remembered we, I, had a game of cricket to win.”

With the pressure of expectation off the Richter scale; even the weather seemed to be conspiring against Blizzard, the Little Master, all 165cm of him, didn’t just dwarf Blizzard (despite him being 13cm taller), he dwarfed the cricket world and everyone in it.

“The temperature was through the roof, humidity through the roof, the screaming, to walk out to that with Sachin — I don’t know if there’s anything else a cricketer from Shepparton could ask for, really.”

If their lives had been a world apart, it was also a world away from where Blizzard began cricket with Shepparton Youth Club; mostly because he couldn’t find a way to play footy 12 months of the year.

Now three years post cricket, he remains the most decorated local to have gripped the willow.

And if you think that statistical comparison was a bit tongue in cheek, Blizzard played 98 T20 games in his career; scored 2043 runs and averaged 24.6 with a strike rate of 154.1. Tendulkar played 78 matches, scored 2334 runs at an average of 33.83 with a strike rate of 119.82.

The cricket-playing footballer from the Goulburn Valley has two parts to his cricket career — the guy most likely to be dropped from any game going longer than two days and as the hard-hitting, no frills batsman whose willingness to open his shoulders from the first ball had him in demand from T20 sides across Australia and the world.

By the time he retired, Blizzard would have four T20 titles with one each for Victoria, the Big Bash League, Bangladesh Premier League and, of course, India.

But even today when his name comes up the commentators and cognoscenti still talk about the delivery he latched on to at the WACA while playing for Victoria.

He timed it to such perfection it went so far it needed a passport — landing more than 130m away and still regarded by many as one of the biggest hits in the history of the game.

Despite which, Blizzard doesn’t deny, he’s made a career out of being the fringe player selected in every squad, meaning he’s been dropped more times than he played.

“I’ve been picked for some teams and been told five minutes before the toss I’m not playing,” he said.

“There’s been other times where I’ve been called up literally in the last minute.

“But I reckon the ability to continue to bounce back and bring my number one self to any situation was my best attribute.”

Blizzard’s hardiness was forged on Shepparton’s wickets, from juniors on. Once he, and his coaches, discovered his innate ability to crank a cricket ball out of the screws he started to rethink his sporting future.

“As a youngster, a lot of kids struggled to hit the ball off the square and I was lucky that I could time the ball well and was quite strong,” he said.

“I was quite aggressive as a cricketer and my whole career was based around that aggression when looking at my white ball stuff.

“It was just before I left to go to Melbourne, the advice ‘stay true to yourself and continue to hit the ball’ really stuck with me.”

The commuting caper between home and Melbourne as an 18-year-old only lasted a short while; before he decided to take the plunge, leave his cricket nursery behind and head to the UK and the county cricket scene.

Where he discovered adjustments had to be rapidly made.

For one, he’d never heard of the hand-stitched Duke cricket ball used by English players. He also wasn’t accustomed to the immaculate wickets curated by county sides.

But none of that slowed down his game plan — attack.

“That was the start of my true journey of the pursuit of cricket,” he said.

“That was an opportunity to get out and see the world, and realising I had a bit of talent that I could make a bit more of my career than just playing Victorian Premier cricket.

“I think it was an eye-opener in getting some new experiences; but understanding that it didn’t really matter at that point what level it was, I was feeling comfortable and confident I could execute my skills.”

A confidence not enjoyed by opposition bowlers, because when Blizzard was out there in the middle it nearly always translated to balls exiting the park — culminating in “that” WACA hit in a T20 final.

“I think we all have unforgettable moments in our careers; whether it’s local cricket, backyard or playing for Australia — and that six at the WACA was definitely one of mine,” he said.

“Everything clicked at the same time and it just so happened to be on TV.

“At the time I didn’t think too much of it until the next day; when people were ringing to chat about it.”

Yes, that was one of those moments that make careers. It certainly put Blizzard on the world stage.

A stage on which he has played with, and against, the likes of Warne, Ponting and Lara. Something every backyard dreamer would surrender anything to have achieved.

But one night, not so many years ago, a sea of sweat in a sea of screaming fans, Aiden Blizzard; footballer, fringe cricketer, the man most likely to be dropped, walked as a batting partner onto the biggest T20 stage of his life alongside, not behind, a living god.