The Camden Cricket Club has been chosen as the Community Cricket Club of the Year by Cricket Australia.
The national award recognised the club’s contribution to players and their community. Club secretary Greg Little said there were many hundreds of nominations from across Australia.
“We received a letter saying that we had been chosen as one of the top two finalists, so we flew to Melbourne last week for the award ceremony at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG),” he said.
“It was a huge, but pleasant surprise [that we won]. It was a great honour and quite humbling to represent the club and the hundreds of volunteers who have helped us over the years.”
The inaugural A Sport for All Community Cricket Awards were organised by Cricket Australia and the Commonwealth Bank to recognise the work being done within the Australian cricket community. Winners received a certificate, a $200 gift voucher to use for new cricket gear and a signed cricket bat from the Australian team.
Judges said the Camden Cricket Club (NSW) claimed the Community Cricket Club of the Year award for their methods in supporting players of all ages and skill levels to become part of the club, whether through Milo In2Cricket, Milo T20 Blast, mixed junior teams and senior teams.
“We accept players of all abilities,” Mr Little said. “We’ve also been working hard to develop women’s cricket. “We have been integrating girls into our junior mixed teams and working across the association to build girls only teams with a view of creating a women’s league.”
Mr Little said the award was testimony to the hard work of the clubs’ local volunteers. “Cricket is a sport that relies on the help, time and energy of volunteers,” he said. “All the thanks go to our volunteers for this award.”