Alyssa Healy - Early Years

Early Years

Healy is the daughter of Greg, who was a member of the Queensland squad, while Greg's younger brother Ian was Australia's Test wicket-keeper from the late 1980s until 1999 and was the world record holder for the most Test dismissals. Another uncle, Ken, played for Queensland. Despite the family heritage, and watching her uncle represent Australia, she said that she did not become interested in cricket until she moved from Queensland to Sydney as a child and was coaxed into taking up the sport by a friend.

Her selection at the age of 16 in late 2006 as wicket-keeper for Barker College First XI, the first time a girl had been picked to play among boys in the elite private schools' cricket competition in New South Wales, drew press commentary from various sources. This came about after an anonymous person, believed to be a former male student, circulated an email entitled "Save Barker Cricket Now" in the school community attacking the selection as a "disgrace" and calling for gender segregation of the cricket team. The sportsmaster of Barker College condemned the anonymous writer as "gutless" and maintained that Healy's selection was based on merit. Ian Healy and Alex Blackwell, a cricketer for the Australian women's team and former Barker student, also defended the selection and criticised the email author. The emailer was also criticised, and Alyssa Healy commended, by social commentators in newspapers. In 2010, she reflected "I'd do it all again...I really enjoyed playing school cricket with the boys and it definitely helped lift my skills and tighten my technique." Both she and Australian team-mate Ellyse Perry have publicly advocated girls playing against boys.

In January 2007, Healy was selected in the New South Wales team to play in the Under-19 interstate competition. Opening the batting in all three matches and keeping in only the second of these, she scored 47, 73 and 41 in her first three three matches, and took one catch. She went on to end with 345 runs at a batting average of 57.50, topping the run-scorers list and was named the best under-17 player at the tournament. The following month, she was selected in the Australia Youth team, composed of under-23 cricketers, to play against New Zealand A, the only player selected before making their senior domestic debut. She scored 10 not out, 41 and 63 in three matches, and made one stumping. Her 63 from 84 balls in the final match was the top-score for the Australians, but it was not enough to prevent a 22-run defeat. She played as a wicket-keeper batting in the middle-order in the first match, and opened in the last two matches, playing purely as a batsman. The series ended 1–1 after the second match was tied.