WHEN the female player of the tournament for the Australian Country Championships was announced on Wednesday night, Bec Cady applauded enthusiastically as she thought her New South Wales Country team-mate Lisa Griffith was a deserved winner.
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I got the biggest shock of my life – I couldn’t believe it.
- Bec Cady
But it turns out that Cady heard the announcement wrong.
It was not fellow Bathurst talent and Bush Breakers skipper Lisa Griffith who was given the nod for the top award, but Cady herself.
“I got the biggest shock of my life – I couldn’t believe it,” Cady said.
“When they announced it I thought they said ‘Lisa Griffith’ so I started clapping. When I stopped clapping all the girls were looking at me and I was like ‘Wait, he said my name’.
“I was not at all expecting it, I didn’t think I was a hope in hell.”
Over the course of the six-day tournament at Wollongong which saw teams battle it out in Twenty20 format matches, officials voted for their player of the match from each fixture.
Though South Australian Country’s Jordan Doecke got the wicketkeeping award, Cady polled 16 votes to top the player of the tournament count.
Opening the batting for the Bush Breakers, Cady ranked sixth on the tournament’s run scorers list as she amassed a total of 177 across eight games.
Her top score was 42 against Northern Territory, while she carried her bat when making 41 against Western Australia Country.
But perhaps even more impressive was her aggressive intent – Cady finished with a 95.2 strike rate and belted 14 fours and two sixes.
On top of that she took two catches and was involved in a pair of run-outs.
“I guess I got the award because I made some runs, but also because I got a couple of run-outs and I took some catches as well. I thought I kept alright actually, it was really hard work on that last day because the ball kept low and wasn’t really bouncing,” she said.
“One of the run-outs wasn’t really mine, it was an assist, but the other one was okay, I threw down the stumps up the other end, so that would’ve helped me.”
Shortly after the player of the tournament announcement, Cady picked up yet another honour for her efforts.
Both she and Griffith were named in the Australian Country XII honours team for the tournament, the Bathurst duo the only members of the Bush Breakers team which placed third to get the nod.
“To get picked in the Australian team as well is awesome. Lisa is in that too, we both had pretty good tournaments. It was great playing with those girls,” Cady said.