Message from the Chairman

Cricket NSW’s purpose is to inspire everyone to play and love the game of cricket. Everything we do is based around this purpose. Like generations before us, we want to create role models to inspire girls and boys (and their parents) to play and love our great game.

We are delighted by the role models we have in the game today – and we are delighted by the number of men and women representing Australia from NSW. Indeed, in the past 12 months, we had 21 NSW players (14 men and 7 women) represent Australia. The men, led superbly by Penrith’s own Pat Cummins, won two wonderful Test series against England and Pakistan as well as the T20 World Cup. The women, which included all time legends of our sport including the World Cup Player of the Tournament, Alyssa Healy, and other NSW greats such as Haynes, Perry and Gardner, took all before them in winning 21 and losing only one match they played over the past 12 months, including the Ashes Series and the World Cup in New Zealand. While NSW did not win a major title this year, we sure can be proud of the number of outstanding players and role models we are producing to allow Australian cricket to excel. Off the field, we completed the development of the best cricket training facility in the world at Wilson Park in Sydney Olympic Park. We moved into this incredible facility in June and thank the partnership with State and Federal governments as well as our other funding partners to make this happen. This facility will not only provide the world’s best training and administration facility but will also allow aspiring young cricketers to watch and even practice alongside their heroes. Another key initiative at Cricket NSW is working closely with our many great former players – both male and female. These players have and continue to contribute to the rich history of cricket in NSW. During the past season, we created a new perpetual trophy for Sheffield Shield matches between NSW and Victoria and we named the trophy after the player who has played the most Sheffield Shield matches for NSW, Greg Matthews. We also for the first time presented the Michael Bevan Award for the One Day Male Player of the Year. During the past year, Cricket NSW lost one of its best players and undoubtably its greatest off field leader and volunteer. Alan Davidson died in October at the age of 92. He was not only an outstanding Test cricketer who took 186 Test wickets at an average of 20 and scored 1300 runs, he also was President of the NSW Cricket Association for an astonishing 33 years. Davo’s funeral service was a tremendous reminder of how great cricketers can inspire thousands, if not millions, of people. We also recognise the many other fine cricketers and servants to the game that passed away over the past twelve months. We must never forget that the health of the game of cricket is not just judged by the short-term nature of elite success, nor should we judge the game by its historical glories. It is equally, if not more importantly, judged by the number of girls and boys playing cricket across the State. At Cricket NSW, half of our staff are focused at the grassroots level – working hard to ensure everyone is given an opportunity to play and thrive in our game. We work closely with the thousands of volunteers who make it possible from parents driving their children to practice and games, to coaches, team managers, scorers, canteen operators and umpires who all commit time and energy for the love of the game. I want to finish by thanking the hard work from our CEO Lee Germon and his entire team throughout the past 12 months. We are fortunate at Cricket NSW to have such strong leadership amongst both the management and playing group. Finally, I want to thank you all for your contribution to and support of cricket in NSW. I assure all of you that we are here to continue to grow this great game.

John Knox