HEALTHY STATE OF PLAY
Q AHow is Cricket Far North doing in terms of numbers? What is the state of cricket in FNQ? It’s really consistent. A lot of our numbers come off the back of the BBL and the success of that and also the success of the Australian international side. They’ve had a good Test series this summer so, once that happens and they stop sanding balls and things like that, the vibe behind it is a lot better and you seem to get more interest. Across the board our numbers are really good. Of course, we’d love more, but we’ve got to take what we can get because it’s such a competitive society out there for sport. Basically every sport now is 12 months of the year. You’ve got to get your kid to pick what they want to do and stick to it for a whole year. You also revamped the juniors system this season. How has that been received?
It certainly hasn’t been without its teething problems and there’s still a bit of work to do there. But that’s the same with introducing any new system – the first year’s always going to be full of stuff to think about. We’ve actually been revising it on the go … it’s still got a few things that we need to do a bit of work on. Where are we currently at with getting another premier cricket fixture in Cairns?
Q AAI believe they’re still trying but there’s a lot of logistics behind it. At this stage, it’s not just a matter of us wanting it, there’s a venue that needs to be sourced, there’s also whether they can get up here, what teams would come and all that sort of stuff. Because we’re volunteers and work full-time at our other jobs, we don’t really hear too much about it until a bit later on. But there are always discussions going on at a high level. Hopefully they can work out in our favour.
We recently had Queensland Cricket CEO Terry Svenson (left) visit the region. What developments are in the works for the local cricket community?
The Griffiths Park sporting precinct is going ahead quite nicely. We’re in a bit of a planning stage around installing lights at Griffiths Park 1, directly behind Sportsworld. That’s progressing really nicely. Basically, the council have a longterm lease on our Griffiths Park 1 oval, which means hopefully, in the not too distant future, we can start seeing a bit more action around that. That would give us two night-time venues. We hope West Cairns Bowls Club could become involved in that Griffiths Park Sporting Precinct, but we’ve still got a bit of work to do with talking to the bowls club.
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