WOOLWORTHS

Woolworths Cricket Blast registrations in NSW surpassed the highest previously recorded season total with over 18,501 children signed up to play and love cricket in 2022-23, an increase from the previously highest recorded number of 17,947 in 2020-21. This has been achieved in collaboration with our cricket community and the engagement of clubs and associations who we are working with to inspire everyone to play and enjoy the game.

There were other significant milestones reached in the space of 5-12-year-olds

Growing The Game

WHERE: Harris Park Cricket Club

REGION: Parramatta

WHEN: January 2023 registering to play cricket too. A total of 43,264 5–12-year-olds, a combination of those who play Woolworths Cricket Blast and junior club cricket, registered to play cricket this season.

Harris Park Cricket Club is a new club in Parramatta with one junior team. To grow their junior participants, the club successfully ran a Woolworths Community Funded program with over 100 registered participants. On the back of this program and in preparation for the 2022/23 season, the club held their first ever Woolworths Cricket Blast program in the spring and had 17 registered boys and girls participating in their club program.

NSW also saw the highest number of girls playing cricket in history. In unprecedented results, more than 8,300 girls in the 5-12-year-old age group registered to play this season. Among the girls who registered, over 5,600 of them signed up for Woolworths Cricket Blast, more than double the 2,433 girls who played Woolworths Cricket Blast in the

2019-20 season, the last before the global pandemic. The never-before recorded registration numbers are a testimony to Cricket NSW’s focused efforts to grow the game in the state like never before and reach a goal of 80,000 5–12-year-olds playing cricket by the 2025/26 season.

More than 5000 children signed up to play Woolworths Cricket Blast this season, than the 201920 season.

From Far Far Away

WHERE: Broken Hill

REGION: Far West

WHEN: August 2022

Girls from some of the state’s remotest areas travelled from their towns to converge on Broken Hill to be a part of a pop-up Woolworths Cricket Blast program organised by Cricket NSW and delivered by homegrown talent and wicketkeeper for NSW’s u-19 Country squad, Katie Letcher. The program saw girls travelling from places as far as Ivanhoe, Menindee, Packsaddle, White Cliffs and Pooncarie to play in the program alongside Broken Hill’s local girls and learn fundamental cricketing skills through a range of activities and games.

Christmas Cricket

WHERE: Sutherland

REGION: Sydney South

WHEN: December 2022 and January 2023

The Sutherland Shire Junior Cricket Association (SSJCA) normally end their self-run Junior Woolworths Cricket Blast program at Christmas, but this year, they extended their Junior Blast season for five extra weeks post the Christmas week to run parallel with Master Blast season for a reduced registration fee. The fiveweek extended program had Junior Blast participants playing modified Master Blast games, as an endeavour to introduce both the children and their parents to what would be the next stage of the cricket pathway, as well as providing the scope to pick up new skills beyond the Junior Blast activities they were doing pre-Christmas.