Achievers
He makes a good case. It’s also a fast game – a speed which not even Twenty20 can even keep up with. As a result, it’s popular with crowds.
gap on us. “Australia is very lucky at the moment due to the talent we have coming through and the talent we have had in the past which means we have continued to win,” Floros said. “However, the other countries are now catching us and the games are getting a lot closer and we are even losing some games. This is happening because we don’t have the money to have camps and continued training through the year for the elite teams.”
Billy Floros, the Australian Team Manager said the World Cup atmosphere was amazing.“South Africans love their sport, especially cricket, so in every game we played, including practice games, we had great crowds,” Floros said. “My most memorable moment, besides winning the World Cup, was the first game we played against South Africa. [I was] looking around the crowd and seeing how many people they had there. We were told there were around 2500 to 3000 people watching the game.”
Despite the slow growth, the players are starting to reap the rewards of their hard work. “We are just starting to see benefits. Slowly but surely, more sponsors are starting to get on board,” Spargo said.“Salary doesn’t exist for us, so if we’re lucky we get sponsorship deals and we get reduced costs at best. Also, a lot of bat-makers and gear-makers are starting to get on board. It’s a good start because it helps out with the costs.” So now, Michael Spargo has a difficult decision to make. The next World Cup in is New Zealand in 2014. Will he hold out for his love of the game?
Not bad for a sport with so little mainstream media coverage. Spargo recalled that same game, which as luck would have it,happened to occur the evening after Australia knocked South Africa out of the Rugby Union World Cup. “One of the crazy nights was the night match after we beat South Africa in the rugby, so they were already not happy about that,” he said.“That night it came down to a similar story to what happened in the rugby – they were beating us all game, they were on top ... and should have beaten us. But then the last [South African batting] pair came out and did badly. They got negative scores, which put a complete spin on the game, and we won. The crowd absolutely hated us and we actually had to get escorted out. It was just a round-robin game!” It’s great to see the growing popularity of the game, at least during World Cup time. Hopefully this growth will continue – only in the last few years was indoor cricket taken under Cricket Australia’s wing. While the game is in CA’s ‘Game Development’ division, this means it is still regarded as a ‘participation’ sport rather than a professional one. “All the elite players are hoping that as Indoor Cricket progresses it will come under the High Performance part which may mean that it won’t cost Australian players to go away,” Floros said.“It would also mean better training opportunities for Australian teams before they go away.” Although Australian players are still excelling, a lack of financial support means that other nations are rapidly closing the
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“I’d like to be around for when it becomes properly professional, when a lot more sponsors get on board,” said Spargo.“But at the moment it’s quite hard to keep it going when you can’t treat it as a professional sport because you’ve got to put in time and money – you’ve got jobs, you’ve got university.” “It would be a lot easier if it became professional, because you could treat it like a job and you could put more time towards it because you know you’re going to get more out of it.” “At the moment we’re kind of waiting to see where it’s going.” Here’s hoping that soon, these talented individuals will be rewarded for their efforts both with national recognition and financial support. After all, these fine sportsmen are cricket champions. Plus, what other Australian team hasn’t lost a World Cup?