Blake Nikitaras (born 29 April 2000) is an Australian cricketer who plays for

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

and

Sydney Thunder The Sydney Thunder is an Australian franchise professional cricket team, competing in Australia's domestic Twenty20 cricket competition, the Big Bash League. Along with the Sydney Sixers, the Thunder is the successor to the Speed Blitz Blues, ...

. He is a left-handed batsman. He is the son of former international cricketer Steve Nikitaras.

Early life

Nikitaras is from

Oak Flats Oak Flats is a suburb of Shellharbour, New South Wales, Australia situated on the south western shores of Lake Illawarra and within the Illawarra region of New South Wales. It is a residential area, which had a population of 6,840 at the . Oak ...

in the

Illawarra The Illawarra is a coastal Regions of New South Wales, region in the southeast of the Australian state of New South Wales. It is situated immediately south of Sydney and north of the South Coast, New South Wales, South Coast region. It encompas ...

region of

. He plays for

St George Cricket Club St George District Cricket Club is a cricket club based in the St. George area that competes in NSW Premier Cricket. Many famous Australian Test cricketers have represented the club. The club has played its home games at Hurstville Oval sinc ...

in NSW Premier Cricket.

Career

Ahead of the 2020-21 season Nikitaras injured his anterior cruciate ligament playing a friendly game of basketball and missed the majority of the season instead rehabbing for months at the

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

. In March 2022 Nikitaras made his first-class debut for

scoring 44 and 56 against the

South Australia cricket team The South Australia men's cricket team is an Australian men's professional first-class cricket team based in the state of South Australia. South Australia play their home matches at Adelaide Oval and Karen Rolton Oval, they are the state crick ...

in the

Sheffield Shield The Sheffield Shield is the domestic first-class cricket competition of Australia. The tournament is contested between teams representing the six states of Australia. The Sheffield Shield is named after Henry Holroyd, 3rd Earl of Sheffield, Lor ...

. This earned him a rookie deal with NSW for the 2022-23 season. In December 2022 Nikitaras was given a contract for the

Big Bash League The Big Bash League (BBL), also known as the KFC Big Bash League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Twenty20 cricket league in Australia. Established in 2011 by Cricket Australia, the Big Bash League replaced the previous competitio ...

with

References

Living people Australian cricketers Sydney Thunder cricketers Cricketers from New South Wales 2000 births People from the Illawarra St George cricketers 21st-century Australian sportsmen {{Australia-cricket-bio-2000s-stub