Nicole McKillop

Nicole McKillop is one of our rising stars, with a B2 sight classification she’s one of two female ‘Tigers’ players to be selected in the inaugural 2023 TAS/ACT ‘CATS’ NCIC team.

Nicole is also BCT’s Youth Ambassador, and works passionately on developing her cricket skills as she does promoting blind and low vision cricket to the community.

Nicole has this to say about her story and how she feels being part of the BCT family…

The thrill of running up and down the cricket pitch makes me feel like I can soar. Sport runs in my family; literally, we all run! As someone with a vision impairment, I always ran with someone else and played in a team – my teammates became my friends.

From primary up until college, I had no friends, I was bullied, and the only thing I could do was run. Running makes me feel safe, free and alive.

Fast forward to recently, I had to stop rowing due to health reasons. Rowing was like running and gliding on top of the water. So I stopped running for a few years, but that was okay because I found my community and friends.

My community was people and youth with a disability to empower themselves, so they did not need to run when they did not have to, and they could advocate for themselves and prevent being bullied for being who they are. I’m learning this too.

BCT saw this. They had the same ‘vision’ as I did, and they offered me the voluntary position as Youth Ambassador of Blind Cricket Tasmania. Not only that, I got to play too, meet wonderful people, and I picked up a sport again but also picked up a sense of self.

Now I am back running because I want to and not because I have to. I can also bat, bowl, field and train with the team and make friends and connections through expanding communities.