WA District Cricket Council set to reconsider allowing disgraced cricketer Alex Hepburn to play in Perth

The decision to allow disgraced Perth cricketer Alex Hepburn to play local cricket will be back on the table at the WA District Cricket Council’s next meeting. The West Australian revealed on Monday Hepburn, who served two years prison time in the United Kingdom for raping a sleeping woman, had been given the all-clear to play in Perth, despite a decade-long ban from playing in England. Hepburn has been allowed to continue playing for Willeton in WA Premier Cricket despite being slapped with a 10-year ban from any cricket activity in the UK. WA Cricket interim chief executive Justin Michael revealed Hepburn’s situation is set to be a point of discussion at the WADCC’s next meeting. Michael wouldn’t go as far as to say he would urge the council to reconsider, but did stress the need to create a “safe and inclusive environment” in the sport. “WA Cricket don’t condone that behaviour. The decision sits with the District Cricket Council, who have made that decision,” he said. “I have had conversations with the chair of the District Council and they are going to bring up Alex’s case at their next meeting. “In WA cricket and sport, you want to be sure you are creating a safe and inclusive environment for everyone. That’s not just in cricket it’s in all sports and that’s what we are trying to do with the WACA Ground improvement project, we want everyone to feel a safe space all year round, which is really important.” The 28-year-old played in Willeton’s second-grade season-opener against Mount Lawley on Saturday. He scored 18 off 41 balls in a seven-wicket victory. Hepburn — an Aquinas College graduate who was once labelled a prodigy of the sport — was in 2019 jailed for raping a young woman in a dark bedroom at his apartment in 2017, while he was rising up the ranks at Worcestershire County Cricket club in middle England. The vile act was committed as part of a grubby “game” over a Whatsapp group message with his teammates to see who could sleep with the most women. He was jailed for five years but was released in 2021 after serving just over two years. During his trial in the Worcester Crown Court in 2019, it emerged that after a 20-beer session with English teammate Joe Clarke in Worcester on April Fool’s Day in 2017, Hepburn, Clarke and a girl went back to Hepburn’s flat. The victim told jurors she had consensual sex with Clarke, who then left his bedroom in the early hours to vomit in a bathroom, and then passed out. When Hepburn saw her sleeping alone on a mattress, he saw a chance for another “stat”. The woman, who cannot be identified, said she had her eyes closed and engaged in 20 minutes of sexual activity with Hepburn in a dimly lit bedroom before “clocking” who he was due to his accent when he spoke. He was originally charged with two counts of rape but after retrial, he was convicted of one count of oral rape relating to the same woman.