Leading the way

Club President Jack Hibbert has been delighted with the turn out so far, but has called on any interested player or parent to get in touch.

The training night was set up in conjunction with Melton City Council’s Access for All Abilities scheme, and with Annecto, a local disability provider.

After looking at various options to get local kids involved, and to build their own skills and confidence, they decided to run a five week MILO In2Cricket program with up to 10 cricketers currently participating.

“We’re just having a ball at the moment,” Mr Hibbert said.

“We’ve got some photos of the kids who just bring out this radiant smile, they only have to hit the ball once a night for that to happen.”

The program will run for the next few weeks until Christmas.

There are plans to set up another regular session next February due to the success of the current scheme.

“It can be hard sometimes with the certain disabilities of the children and we play each training by ear,” Mr Hibbert added.

“We’ve got 10 players at the moment but we had another lady calling up the other day to ask if she could bring her children down, which is just fantastic.

“It’s just great for us that it takes place on a training night too, last week a few of the senior players and the coach got involved. Two of the kids actually thought some of the players were from the Australian team because our colours are green and gold.

“It is just great to see them playing cricket. There’s probably two kids training at the moment who might be able to play senior cricket in the future, they won’t be superstars but it’s all about getting involved.”

For more information on the training sessions please contact Jack Hibbert on 0427 824 507. St Anthony’s Cricket Club is located on Reserve Road, Melton, 3337.