Matt Wade: Crossroads Moments, The Domestic Win "Up There" With Ashes, and Why The ACA Has Been "Massive" Throughout It All

“The most vivid memory I have over the whole thing that's strange, is probably the first ball,” Matthew Wade said.

Wade stood at the non-striker’s end in Dubai during the 2021 T20 World Cup, and it crossed his mind that it could be his final innings batting for Australia.

It was the second semi-final, and at 5-96, Australia required a daunting 81 runs off the final 46 balls against Pakistan, a team closing in on a famous victory. Glenn Maxwell had just gone out “up in the air”, skying a reverse sweep to Haris Rauf, as tournament star Shadab Khan took his fourth wicket.

“I knew that we were in a bit of trouble and we needed to win that game,” says Wade. “If we didn't, then my chances of playing for Australia, especially in white ball format were probably coming to an end.”

Any doubts were quickly blasted aside by his batting partner Marcus Stoinis, whose first-ball six served as a bold statement of intent. Suddenly, Wade felt “in the zone”.

The pair had a playing partnership stretching back a decade to their domestic careers with Victoria, and Wade describes Stoinis as “one of those people that you bat with, and you get great connection with”.

“When Stoiny hit that first ball for six, it really switched me on, to be honest,” says Wade. “I knew he was ready to go, and I had to find a way to help him out.”

The pair stormed their way to the target, scoring 81 runs off just 41 balls to win with a full over to spare.

“The rest happened fast and it was a bit of a blur,” says Wade, who was named Player of the Match for his 41 runs from only 17 balls. Stoinis added 40 runs, and Australia sailed into the final, which they would win against New Zealand.

The T20 World Cup win was a first for Australia and one of Wade’s most memorable moments. He would also represent Australia for another three years, including at the 2024 Men’s T20 World Cup.

Wade grew up with Aussie rules in his blood. His father, Scott, played for the Hawthorn Hawks in the VFL before becoming a legend of Tasmanian football.

“I was heavily invested in football,” says Wade. “I didn't really stumble across cricket until backyard cricket with my cousins.” He says he didn’t start “structured cricket” until he was 12, but “it happened pretty fast from there.”

Within two years he was playing first-grade and rising through state representative teams. It fast-tracked him into a star-studded Under-19 Australia team with David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Moises Henriques, Usman Khawaja, and Jackson Bird.

Tasmania's wicket-keeping depth was strong, and Wade found himself down the pecking order. After a few matches on a rookie contract, he moved to Melbourne, accepting an opportunity to play for Victoria.

“I was really lucky on that journey,” says Wade. “I played with Ben Shipperd, who is Greg Shipperd's son. And when Greg left Tasmania and went to Victoria, he kept an eye on me through my junior stuff and offered me a contract straight out of U/19s to play for Victoria.”

The signing paid dividends, as Victoria won four Sheffield Shield finals with Wade behind the stumps.

By 2011, he was vaulted into the national team conversation. His first T20 call-up came in October 2011 against South Africa.

“I was only 23,” says Wade. “But with some stuff that was going on with Brad Haddin at the time, I found myself playing Test cricket. I was thrown in, and trying to learn it all at the age of 23 on an international stage is not easy.”

Wade played 12 Tests in quick-fire succession, but then from March, 2013 to November, 2016, did not play another. When Haddin returned and players like Peter Nevill and Alex Carey came to the fore across the three formats, Wade found himself increasingly out of the Australian team.

After observing other players who were “hellbent on playing for Australia” and seeing their performances not go the way they wanted, Wade decided himself to focus on team success. He and his wife had their first daughter, and after more than a decade in Victoria, “it was time to get home and have some family around us.”

He moved back to Tasmania for the 2017/18 season, but the homecoming hit an immediate snag. After being selected for Australia, he was dropped again within eight weeks. It was a turning point.

“I actually went and started an apprenticeship with one of my best mates down here, and just cleared my mind of cricket,” Wade says, reducing his training to just twice a week.

He also stopped wicket-keeping, and giving his game that freedom revitalised his batting. “The following year, I managed to get a thousand runs,” recalls Wade, putting him back on the national radar as a specialist batter.

But his comeback faced one final, crucial test. On the verge of an Ashes tour recall, with his wife about to give birth to their second child, he nearly pulled the pin.

“I rang my wife during a game and was going to tell the Australian selectors that I wasn't going to be going to England because we were about to have the birth of Goldie, our second child,” he says.

“She convinced me to get on the plane two days after the birth of Goldie, and I had a really good series and ended up playing in The Ashes as well on the back end of that.”

Since retiring from international cricket last year, Wade has enjoyed some hugely rewarding moments in the game, and singling out his greatest on-field success in that period is an easy one for him.

“Tasmania was so excited to see their team finally get a trophy,” says Wade of the Hobart Hurricanes’ drought-breaking BBL championship win. “It was one of the coolest nights that I've ever been involved with, certainly up there with World Cups and Ashes for sure. To have your family there as well, and for Mitch Owen, a Tassie boy to do what he did and just the whole thing to be honest.”

Owen starred with 108 off 42 balls as the Hurricanes cruised to victory over the Sydney Thunder, who had set a mark of 182. Wade (32 off 17) was at the crease as Ben McDermott (18 off 12) hit the winning boundary, securing the title with 35 balls to spare.

“I’d captained the team for a long time and stepped back, and we made a real shift off the field last year before the tournament,” he said. “So, it was just really really rewarding and it felt homely.”

Wade has invested more time into cricket in Tasmania, and has been involved in coaching Tasmanian youth sides and Second XI, and has now stepped into some assistant coaching duties with the Australian Men’s team, and says it was always something he has been “definitely interested in”.

“I think once you become a leader in a group as well, or a captain of a team, it certainly sparks interest around the strategic side, and the planning side of games,” says Wade. “I really enjoyed that side of it, and helping younger players out and seeing them flourish at the level has been rewarding.”

From behind the stumps to a specialist batsman, and a three-format international to totally left out, Matthew Wade has seen the game from as many angles as any Australian cricketer. There is at least one constant he credits with being in his corner throughout, which is the Australian Cricketers’ Association.

Wade lists some of the support provided as MoU negotiations, individual player contracts issues, and everyday dealings like the logistics of travel as crucial support he has experienced from ACA, saying, “the more I've played around the world, I’ve learnt that is not readily available for every international player.”

“I think the ACA's been massive throughout my whole career,” says Wade. “I've been around 18 or 19 seasons now. It's not so much the direct contact that I have with the ACA or the day-to-day dealings, it's knowing that you've got an association that is so well equipped to deal with whatever scenario you get yourself into, or whenever you need help, that you're a phone call away.”