NMCA’s Australia Day celebration

Continuing its support of the White Ribbon Campaign, the NMCA coordinated the match to raise awareness for the cause.

Players were provided with shirts designed especially for the day, and were selected into either the Kangaroos or Emus teams for the match.

The senior match involved one representative from each of the senior clubs in the NMCA with players being nominated for epitomising the very best things about the NMCA’s cricket community and culture.

Teams were led by A Grade Premiership captain Gary Bell (Rivergum) and A Grade Premiership player Ryan Docherty (Keon Park).

Prior to the match, a Phillip Hughes Tribute was held, acknowledging both his passing and his contribution to cricket.

Each player wore a shirt emblazoned with his Test number 408 and paused for 63 seconds of silence.

The rules of the T20 were also amended to require players to retire on 63 instead of the usual 50.

The result of the match went the way of the Emus (6-198) who were dismissed the Kangaroos for 98 with Vik Dhingra from the Darebin Chargers named Man-of-the-Match after making 26 and taking 3-7.

Also on the day, a junior match was held, involving a large selection of cricketers from the NMCA’s under 14, 16 and 18 representative program.

Teams were led by representative players Aftab Merchant (Keon Park) and James Sparrow (Dennis).
The Kangaroos won in a nail biter, defending their score of 130.

The team took three weeks in the last two overs to seal the match, dismissing the Emus for 127 with the Preston Baseballers’ Kuldeep Patel named Man-of-the-Match.

“It was a great day,” NMCA Board Member Lenore Smith said.

“It started with teams who were a collection of players who had not played with or against each other before, and finished with a group of cricketers leaving as mates.

“It is a testament to the culture of the association that so many people volunteered their time on the day to assist in the organisation, umpiring, scoring, playing and general running of the event.”

Over $1000 was raised for the White Ribbon Foundation during the course of the day, with a large crowd of NMCA members in attendance to enjoy the matches and the Australia Day festivities.