Daniel Trevor Christian (born 4 May 1983) is an Australian professional

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er with Aboriginal ancestry. He was considered a

Twenty20 Twenty20 (abbreviated T20) is a shortened format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two t ...

specialist and played for franchises all over the globe. Christian is known as a powerful hitter and a useful medium pacer. ESPNcricinfo's Peter English described him as a "natural all-rounder". He is seen as a cricket role model for Australia's indigenous population.

Early life

Born in 1983, Christian grew up in the town of

Narrandera Narrandera ( ), until around 1949 also spelled "Narandera", is a town located in the central Riverina region of south-western New South Wales, Australia. The town lies on the junction of the Newell Highway, Newell and Sturt Highway, Sturt highwa ...

in the

Riverina The Riverina () is an agricultural list of regions in Australia, region of south-western New South Wales, Australia. The Riverina is distinguished from other Australian regions by the combination of flat plains, a climate with significant seaso ...

region of

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 is of British, Irish Catholic and Australian Indigenous

Wiradjuri The Wiradjuri people (; ) are a group of Aboriginal Australian people from central New South Wales, united by common descent through kinship and shared traditions. They survived as skilled hunter-fisher-gatherers, in family groups or clans, a ...

ancestry. He lived in Narrandera until the age of 13 when he moved to

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

to attend

St Gregory's College, Campbelltown St Gregory's College Campbelltown (abbreviated as SGC or Greg's or St Greg's) is an Independent school, independent Catholic Single-sex school, single-sex and Mixed-sex education, co-educational comprehensive and specialist Primary school, prim ...

Cricket career

In 2003, Christian attended the Australian Cricket Academy. Christian played

List A cricket List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the num ...

for

in 2006 and 2007. After he was not offered a new contract for the 2007–08 season, he moved to South Australia where he soon found himself playing

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

for the state team. In 2009, Christian captained an

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

cricket team that toured England. ESPNcricinfo noted that "With the bat Christian can be brutal, particularly when aiming at Adelaide's square boundaries, and he is one of those rare strikers whose eyes don't need a warm-up ball." He was brought into Australia's

team "following a series of brutal, clever and consistent performances." In February 2010, he made his

Twenty20 International Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of Twenty20 cricket, in which each team plays a single innings with a maximum of twenty overs. The matches are played between international teams recognized by the International Cricket Council (ICC). ...

debut against the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

. The following month, he was selected as a member of Australia's squad for the

2010 ICC World Twenty20 The 2010 ICC World Twenty20 was the third edition of the Men's T20 World Cup, formerly known as the ICC World Twenty20, an international Twenty20 cricket tournament that was held in the West Indies between 30 April and 16 May 2010. It was wo ...

tournament. Christian played for

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

in their victorious 2010 Twenty20 Cup campaign. Additionally, Christian was a part of the Deccan Charger’s team which competed annually in the

DLF IPL The Indian Premier League (IPL) is a professional Twenty20 (T20) cricket league in India, organised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Founded in 2007, it features ten city-based franchise teams. The IPL is the most popu ...

- he was purchased for US$900,000. On 2 March 2012, he took figures of 5/31 which included a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

in an ODI match against

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

at the MCG. Despite his impressive figures, Australia were unable to win the match. He was picked up by the

Royal Challengers Bangalore The Royal Challengers Bengaluru, formerly Royal Challengers Bangalore, also known as RCB, are a professional Twenty20, Twenty20 cricket team based in Bengaluru, Karnataka, that competes in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Founded in 2008 ...

for a sum of US$100,000, and joined them for their IPL-6 campaign. In 2013, Christian signed for the English side Gloucestershire Gladiators to play in the

2013 Twenty20 Cup The 2013 FriendsLife T20 was the eleventh edition of what would later become the T20 Blast, a domestic Twenty20 English cricket competition. The competition ran from 26 June to 17 August 2013. The teams and format of the tournament remained the ...

, although he did play a first-class game for Gloucestershire against Australia A. The following year he signed for Middlesex Panthers to play in the

2014 t20 Blast The 2014 NatWest T20 Blast was the twelfth edition of the T20 Blast, the English Twenty20 cricket competition. The competition ran from 16 May 2014 until Finals Day at Edgbaston on 23 August, which was won by Birmingham Bears. The competition r ...

, a spell which included an innings against

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

of 129, which included ten sixes and to date is the highest score by a batsman in a T20 game at the St. Lawrence Ground. In 2015, Christian signed for his 4th English County,

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...

in a spell that would bring both him and the club great success in the

t20 Blast The T20 Blast, officially known as the Vitality Blast for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Twenty20 cricket league in England and Wales. The competition was established by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003. T20 Blast is t ...

competition. In February 2017, he was bought by

Rising Pune Supergiants Rising Pune Supergiant (often abbreviated as RPS) was a franchise cricket team based in Pune, Maharashtra, that played in the Indian Premier League in 2016 and as a finalist in 2017. It was the second team representing Pune after Pune Warriors ...

team for the

2017 Indian Premier League The 2017 Indian Premier League season (also known as IPL 10 and branded as Vivo IPL 2017) was the tenth edition of the Indian Premier League, a professional Twenty20 cricket league established by the Board of Control for Cricket in India, BCCI ...

. In January 2018, he was bought by the

Delhi Daredevils The Delhi Capitals, formerly the Delhi Daredevils, also known as DC, are a professional Twenty20 cricket team based in Delhi that competes in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The franchise is owned by GMR Group and JSW Sports. Its home groun ...

in the 2018 IPL auction. During the summer of 2018, he scored his first T20 hundred for the Notts Outlaws against

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

posting a record score at the County Ground in the process. In October 2018, he was named in Jozi Stars' squad for the

first edition The bibliographical definition of an edition is all copies of a book printed from substantially the same setting of type, including all minor typographical variants. First edition According to the definition of ''edition'' above, a book pr ...

of the

Mzansi Super League The Mzansi Super League (MSL) was a Twenty20 cricket (T20) franchise league held in South Africa. The competition was established in 2018 by Cricket South Africa (CSA) as a replacement for the failed T20 Global League, but only two editions wer ...

T20 tournament. In July 2019, he was selected to play for the Dublin Chiefs in the inaugural edition of the

Euro T20 Slam The euro (symbol: €; currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the euro area or, more commonly, the eurozone. The euro is divided into 100 ...

cricket tournament. However, the following month the tournament was cancelled. In September 2019, he was named in the squad for the Jozi Stars team for the

2019 Mzansi Super League The 2019 Mzansi Super League, also known as the MSL 2.0, was the second edition of the Mzansi Super League (MSL) Twenty20 (T20) franchise cricket tournament in South Africa. It started on 8 November and ended on 16 December 2019. Jozi Stars wer ...

tournament. Christian led the Notts Outlaws to victory in the 2020

T20 Blast The T20 Blast, officially known as the Vitality Blast for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Twenty20 cricket league in England and Wales. The competition was established by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003. T20 Blast is t ...

competition with a man of the match performance. In November 2020, he was picked by

Karachi Kings Karachi Kings (; ) is a Pakistani professional franchise Twenty20 cricket team that competes in the Pakistan Super League (PSL). The team is based in Karachi, the provincial capital of Sindh, and was formed in 2015 by the Pakistan Cricket Boar ...

for

Pakistan Super League The Pakistan Super League (PSL), also known as HBL PSL for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Twenty20 cricket league in Pakistan, organised by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). Founded by the PCB in 2015, the league features six city-bas ...

. He played the first few matches but withdrew from tournament in March 2021 due to a Covid-19 outbreak. Before that he had played for

Multan Sultans Multan Sultans is a Pakistani professional Twenty20 franchise cricket team representing Multan, a city in southern Punjab, in the Pakistan Super League (PSL). The team was founded in 2017 as an additional sixth team added to the PSL with contra ...

in the PSL 2019. In February 2021, Christian was bought by the

in the IPL auction ahead of the

2021 Indian Premier League The 2021 Indian Premier League (also known as IPL 14, or for sponsorship reasons, VIVO IPL 2021) was the fourteenth season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), a professional Twenty20 cricket league established by the Board of Control for Cricke ...

. On 8 August 2021, Christian scored 30 runs off an over bowled by left-arm spinner Shakib Al Hasan as part of a 15-ball 39 scored against Bangladesh, to become the first Australian to hit five sixes in a single over of a T20 international. Later the same month, Christian was named as one of three players as injury cover in Australia's squad for the

2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup The 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup was the seventh edition of the Men's T20 World Cup, formerly known as the ICC World Twenty20, a Twenty20 cricket tournament that took place from 17 October to 14 November 2021. The tournament was hosted by Unit ...

. In early January 2025, Christian came out of retirement to join the

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, ...

for the rest of the

2024–25 Big Bash League season The 2024–25 Big Bash League season or BBL, 14 was the fourteenth season of the Big Bash League (BBL), the professional men's Twenty20 domestic cricket competition in Australia. The tournament was played from 15 December 2024, with the final ...

. He had been serving as Thunder's assistant coach over the previous two seasons and answered a late call-up to bolster the team amid a mounting injury toll.

Books

In 2022 he wrote ''The All-rounder - The inside story of big time cricket'' with

Gideon Haigh Gideon Clifford Jeffrey Davidson Haigh (born 29 December 1965) is an Australian journalist and non-fiction author who writes about sport (especially cricket), business and crime in Australia. He was born in London, was raised in Geelong, and li ...

about his exploits in cricket during 2021 with RCB, Australia and in the Hundred.

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Christian, Daniel 1983 births Living people Indigenous Australian cricketers Wiradjuri people Cricketers from Sydney Australian cricketers Australia One Day International cricketers Australia Twenty20 International cricketers One Day International hat-trick takers Brisbane Heat cricketers Deccan Chargers cricketers Australian expatriate cricketers in India Delhi Capitals cricketers Gloucestershire cricketers Hampshire cricketers Australian expatriate cricketers in England Hobart Hurricanes cricketers Jozi Stars cricketers Australian expatriate cricketers in South Africa Karachi Kings cricketers Melbourne Renegades cricketers Middlesex cricketers Multan Sultans cricketers Australian expatriate cricketers in Pakistan New South Wales cricketers Nottinghamshire cricketers Rising Pune Supergiant cricketers Royal Challengers Bengaluru cricketers South Australia cricketers Sydney Sixers cricketers Trinbago Knight Riders cricketers Victoria cricketers People educated at St Gregory's College, Campbelltown 21st-century Australian sportsmen