Clubs and officials descend on CitiPower Centre for Community Cricket Forum

The forum, which was supported by the Victorian Government, provided a fantastic opportunity for association and club volunteers, administrators, government and other key stakeholders to discuss a host of topics to assist them in their planning and delivery of the upcoming cricket season.

The day kicked off with keynote speaker Peter Downs from Play By The Rules who spoke about integrity in community cricket. This focused on weekly integrity issues that community cricket clubs faced, such as having players umpire their own matches and whether a batter should walk when they are given not out.

Additional topics covered throughout the day included:

• Grants and Sponsorship – Identifying grants available to clubs and associations, and the best approach to take when applying
• Female participation – How to integrate Women and Girls into the club space
• Safeguarding Children and Young People – Discussion around child safe standards and actions that clubs could undertake to achieve the standards
• Junior Coaching – Identifying new and exciting drills to use for the season ahead
• Building relationships – A panel discussion focussed on the importance of building relationships with the local community (schools, local council, local cricket manager)
• Strategy – looked at the different elements of a strategic plan, and the process to undertake when creating the strategic plan
• Programs – Overview of the new Woolworths Cricket Blast entry level program
• Volunteer Engagement and Retention – Case studies were presented of clubs that were able to utilise the Volunteer Management Framework to help increase the number of volunteers that support the club. Different strategies were highlighted to engage new volunteers at a club or association.

Throughout the course of the day, participants were also provided a tour of Cricket Victoria’s state of the art facility including the indoor cricket nets, gym, pools and media rooms.

Cricket Victoria General Manger Community Cricket Rohan O’Neill was pleased to see members from the cricket community engaging with one another throughout the day at the CitiPower Centre.

“It was fantastic to see so many people from within community cricket all in the one room, working towards the same vision,” O’Neill said.

“It’s an exciting time for our sport – with significant investment being made into the grass roots, a new product and partnership in Woolworths Cricket Blast, and the W/BBL going from strength to strength, it’s a great time for cricket.”

If you were unable to attend the forum, you can watch the video content here or download the presentations from the day below.

Community Cricket Forum Presentations	Download Link
Child Safe Standards	Download
Good Sports	Download
Grants & Commercial	Download
Strategy	Download
Volunteer Engagement and Recognition	Download
Woolworths Cricket Blast	Download
Gender Integration & Inclusivity	Download