Comfort in transition for Alex Doolan

A couple weeks spent at home with his family over Christmas in lieu of competing in the Big Bash was all the convincing Alex Doolan needed to call time on his professional cricketing career.

Reflecting on his 13-year career that featured over 170 matches and 8,500 runs combined across each format of the game, Doolan found two of his highlights.

“When I sit back and look at it, it felt like it went really quickly but when I look at what I was able to achieve, I’m very proud of what I did and very much looking forward to what’s next,” he says.

“On a personal note, playing cricket for Australia was a huge highlight for me.

“But what I hold really dear to me, would be the two Sheffield Shield titles with Tasmania. We had a great group of people who were able to achieve that, we all played cricket for that team success.

Doolan has been proactive in planning his transition into the next phase of his life over the last three or four years, through an education grant from the ACA. He will continue his career as a part-time financial planner with Ford Scott Financial Planning in Hobart whilst completing a post-graduate diploma through the Kaplan Institute.

“The education grants from the ACA are terrific, as are the Player Development Managers (PDMs) associated with each state.

“I’ve had plenty of support from PDMs who have worked for Cricket Tasmania as well as from the ACA itself providing a grant allowing me to study free of charge, which is amazing.

“Study can be very expensive, so to know the ACA is there for you, able to provide you with finances that enable you to further yourself outside of cricket is great.

Doolan is extremely thankful for the support the ACA has provided throughout his career and encourages all members to utilise the benefits of their membership.

“Cricket is such a consuming game. Having the Australian Cricketers’ Association there being able to help you in any way possible to further your life outside of cricket, is a huge support and not many other people can say that they have that.

“We do know that cricket does have an end point and once that comes, you need to find something to provide an income.

“So, even though cricket is time consuming it does provide us a lot of time outside the game where we need to expand our skills and to test what else we have other than cricket.”