Alana King may be one of Australia’s weapons in their bid to retain the Ashes when the multi-format series begins in Sydney on Sunday, but the leg-spinner’s initial love was tennis.
Having first picked up a racquet aged five, King, from the south-east Melbourne suburb of Clarinda, went on to play pennant competition at Dendy Park. She was a ballkid during the 2011 women’s singles final at Melbourne Park when Belgian Kim Clijsters won her first Australian Open title, edging China’s Li Na.
Alana King (right) was a ballkid at the Australian Open before she was a cricketer.Credit: Getty Images
“I loved tennis, I still do, I watch all the grand slams as much as I can and try and have a hit whenever I can,” King said.
For two years King scurried after tennis balls for the likes of Roger Federer, Lleyton Hewitt and Marco Baghdatis, and was briefly left with blurry vision after wearing one of Baghdatis’ bullet serves. Bernard Tomic, she said, was “actually really nice”.
“Being a ballkid was a dream for me as a kid. I always dreamed of myself playing in a grand slam. To see the tennis players a few metres in front of you, and see the way they play, it was the best two weeks of school holidays I ever had,” King said.
“To see some of the world’s best … was a pretty surreal moment. Bernard Tomic was actually really nice, which surprises people, but he was a ballkid himself. He respected the ballkids a lot, which was really nice. I had Roger Federer, but the one person I did want, but unfortunately didn’t actually get, was Serena Williams, who is my favourite player of all time.
“Lleyton Hewitt and [David] Nalbandian [five-set epic in 2011] was probably the biggest game that I was part of in terms of how long it went for – I think it went for over four-and-a-half hours.”
King also played softball, baseball and cricket, and, aged 16, was awarded her first rookie contract in 2012 with Victoria in the Women’s National Cricket League. She continued to juggle tennis under her long-time junior and senior coach Ben Salmon until her late teens when her cricket skills really began to flourish.
She remains in contact with Salmon, “who is very proud of where I have come to in my career”.
“He didn’t like it at the time when I picked cricket, but now he is seeing the rewards of me picking cricket over tennis. He is very proud, for sure,” King said.
Tennis’ loss has been cricket’s gain, and King, 29, has emerged as a major force on the domestic and international cricket scene, her sharp-tunning leggies bamboozling many a batter.
In the past year, King has produced a series of almost unplayable deliveries. In particular, there was the drifting and biting leg-spinner to all-rounder Pooja Vastrakar in Mumbai which pitched outside leg but rocked off-stump, sparking comparisons with Shane Warne’s ball of the century to England’s Mike Gatting at Old Trafford in 1993 and his dismissal of Herschelle Gibbs and his angle bat in the 1999 World Cup semi-final.
“It obviously is nice to get talked about in that regard. [But] I am trying to do the best I can not for myself, but for the team,” King said.
King also let rip a series of sizzling deliveries in The Hundred in England, having in 2022 claimed the competition’s first hat-trick.
“What has made me successful in recent times is that I have just tried to hone in on my stock delivery. That, obviously, is what is going to put you in good stead, it’s going to set you up in your over or your spell, with a few subtle variations,” King said.
“The top-spinner comes out when necessary, the slider comes out sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally, but there are not too many tricks in my book. I want to spin it as much as I can and create doubt in the batter’s mind. As long as I can keep getting that beautiful drift, that goes outside leg, or pitching on leg, and hitting the top of off, I am a pretty happy camper to be honest.”
Warne was the reason why King, whose parents hail from Chennai, took up leg spin. She has continued to live by his mantra – spin it hard and have fun.
King played a key role in Australia’s retention of the Ashes in 2023, although the tourists left slightly disappointed, having squandered a Test victory at Trent Bridge and an ensuing Twenty20 win to start the white-ball campaign.
The absence of injured fellow spinner Sophie Molineux for this series may mean there is a greater focus on King against a strong England batting line-up featuring gun allrounder Nat Sciver-Brunt, who has four centuries in her past five 50-over innings against Australia, and Tammy Beaumont. Beaumont thrashed 208 in the Trent Bridge Test, the highest score by an English woman.
King and Sciver-Brunt are teammates in The Hundred, and their duel is something to look forward to.
“Sciver-Brunt is probably the hardest batter to bowl at. She is a 360-degree player off the ground. I love bowling to Nat, but I also hate it as well, but I think she brings the best out of you,” King said.
“If you keep challenging her, you are doing a really good job … she is so skilful, she is so talented. We are teammates for a small part of the year which I absolutely love because she is a nightmare to bowl to, so being on the same team as her at the Rockets is a nice change.”
Australia have not been beaten by England in a multi-format series since 2014.
The series begins with ODIs at North Sydney Oval on Sunday and Melbourne’s Junction Oval on Tuesday.
