TOM HAYES
CRICKET
By TOM HAYES HOWZAT! Regional schools recently welcomed the opportunity to have Melbourne Stars, accompanied by some players and staff, come to their school and run a series of cricket programs. To celebrate Play Cricket Week, Melbourne Stars and Melbourne Renegades joined forces to visit nearly 90 community schools throughout Victoria. Almost 150 cricketers made their way to clubs, schools and events to promote cricket, to help with registrations for the upcoming season. Players and staff split into groups to cover as much area as possible, hosting interactive clinics with kids from around the state. From August 21 to 23, Melbourne Stars took off on its Super Stars Road Trip, covering east and west Gippsland, Mornington Peninsula, the Victorian high country and north-east Victoria. The group that made their way down to our neck of the woods was the Melbourne Stars duo of WBBL player Sophie Reid and BBL rookie and Victoria’s Cam McClure. Beginning in Mirboo North, Leongatha and Korumburra on the opening day, on day two of the road trip the stars made their way to Traralgon’s St Paul’s Anglican Grammar, St Vincent De Paul Primary School in Morwell, then St Kieran’s Primary School in Moe. On their last leg of their Latrobe Valley tour in Moe, St Kieran’s students were filled with excitement for the program that awaited. Reid spoke on spreading the word of cricket around, as the season edges closer and closer. “Our focus is getting around to as many schools as we can, introducing cricket or just continuing to inspire the youngsters who perhaps are playing at school, but to get down to Woolworths Cricket Blast – get that participation higher,” she said. “We’ve also been visiting some of the Woolworths (Cricket) Blast clinics in the evening, and meeting some of the cricket facilitators, which has been awesome – they’re the guys on the ground supporting the next generation of cricketers.” Throughout the road trip, Reid believed every school to be different in its own way, but one thing that has remained the same is the level of attention and eagerness from the students. “Gippsland has been amazing, every school we’ve gone to has been a bit different, all of the kids have been really keen,” she said. “It’s been really cool to see schools have a few more people doing cricket, a lot of girls out there as well getting into it with the Woolworths Cricket Blast, so hopefully they’ve enjoyed it. “We do a little QnA which is always fun, some of the kids come up with some pretty funny questions. “We do a lot of games, some hand-eye coordination, throwing, throwing at the stumps, a little bit of batting as well, just sort of introduce some of the basics.” School visits like these can often mean a lot of kids as it can create a figure for them to potentially aspire to, often seen within football clubs too. “I grew up in Melbourne, and I do remember we had some footy players visit in Grade 2, and that was just the coolest thing,” Reid added. “They might not remember our names, but hopefully they’ll remember the Melbourne Stars in cricket, and sort of see some role models.” Reid hopes that the students can walk away with some sort of inspiration to either pursue cricket or continue their journey. One point she wanted to make clear is that cricket can be played by anyone. “Hopefully they can take away that cricket’s a sport for all,” Reid said. “You could be really tall, really small, really fast, or maybe really slow, but everyone can play cricket, whether that’s batting, bowling, fielding, wicket-keeping.” The Super Stars’ Gippsland Road Trip completed the following day with visits to Willow Grove, Warragul and Drouin. Melbourne Stars’ Rhys McKenna and Victoria’s Jasmine Nevins also conducted programs in the Sale, Maffra and Heyfield on Wednesday, August 23, as part of a separate group. National Cricket Census data was released for the 2022-23 season, which saw the participation of kids aged five to 12 had increased by nine per cent. The Woolworths Cricket Blast program turned out to be a huge driver for this increase, with a 30 per cent registration increase on the year prior, while participation of girls has increased by 93 per cent.
