Claiming Cricket NSW’s Sport For All Association of the Year was a “nice reward” for Orange District Junior Cricket Association president Dave Cumming and his committee, but now they’re one step away from claiming the national equivalent.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
All seven state and territory winners became eligible for Cricket Australia’s gong but thanks to its stunning work in making the sport accessible to everyone and anyone, the ODJCA was shortlisted into the final two with Melbourne All Abilities Cricket Association.
“I’m not sure how we’ll go in the national one, we’ll just see what happens there but it would be incredible to win,” Cumming said, the national award will be presented in Melbourne later this month.
“Even to win the NSW one is great. We’ve always taken on what Cricket NSW has suggested and to be fair we’ve probably taken on more than we can chew, and just chewed like buggery.
“It’s not easy, and it’s always more work but it’s more reward too. The committee has done an amazing job, a lot of hard work.
“We don’t do any of this for awards or recognition we do it to get kids playing cricket, but it’s a nice reward because there is a lot of hard work that goes into every season.
“We tend to not focus on the things that go well, we sort of look at what we can do better all the time but stepping back and looking at it, there is a lot going really well at the moment.”
Once you step back and reflect on just how many pathways the ODJCA offers, Cricket NSW central west regional development manager Matt Tabbernor explained, it’s not tough to see why it was given the nod at the state level.
“It’s about recognising associations and people that make cricket accessible to the entire community and the ODJCA certainly does that,” Tabbernor said.
“They do that through the Western NSW Junior Carnivals, the Thunder Girls’ Cricket League, the support of Orange’s all abilites program, all the Milo In2Cricket and Blast programs, then there’s factors like the ODJCA’s new initiative, the Primary Schools Cricket Development Grant, which will help break down participation barriers that way.
“There was four in the final for the NSW award, and every association state-wide is doing great things but I think Orange thoroughly deserved their win.”
On top of that, ODJCA registrar Jo Hunter was also a finalist for the Sport For All Junior Cricket Champion of the Year award.
She made it through on the back of her work establishing Orange’s Thunder Girls’ League and all her work on the coaching front, which includes T20 Blast sides and Orange and Mitchell representative teams.
“It’s nice to get some external validation that you’re doing something right,” Hunter smiled.
“Jo does a lot of hard work, and really deserved her nomination,” Tabbernor said.
The ODJCA’s preparations for 2018-19 will kick-off shortly, with its annual general meeting on Tuesday, May 15. Cumming encouraged anyone interested to head along.
Matt Findlay
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
