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About Me

Craig Dodson
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Craig Dodson

Business Advisor
Sport Integrity Australia
https://www.sportintegrity.gov.au
Melbourne, Australia
Experienced professional across the sport, NFP and government sectors.

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Q: The Book is a celebration of cricket and the fantastic people and clubs that help underpin it.

My mate ‘CAT’ says it is the best (and only) book he has read since year those bloody year 10 English Teachers at Mount Austin High School in Wagga Wagga forced him to read.. High praise indeed.

The Book is the best attempt by an average bloke and amateur writer to simply have a crack at something that was on the bucket List.

https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/175/craig-dodson/blog/1417/do-you-love-club-cricket-i-do-so-much-so-that-i-wrote-a-book-about-it
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Q: We were taking the field against the Primary Club (A great Australian Cricketing Charity) and I was pleasantly waiting at the top of my mark when the whispers started to race around my teammates as the new batsman strode to the crease at one for bugger all.

‘Is that Tony Dodemaide’? There was no sight of a 1980s style mullet from my vantage point so I couldn’t be sure until he was 22 yards away. Yes, a confirmed sighting of the bowling all-rounder who graced the test arena 10 times and wore the canary yellow cap for 24 ODIs.

https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/175/craig-dodson/blog/2199/my-straight-breaks-to-dodemaides-kookaburra
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My straight breaks to Dodemaide's Kookaburra
Have you ever stood at the top of your bowling mark and seen a Test Cricketer with willow in hand guarding the stumps? I did last weekend and here is the tale.I arrived at Trinity College in ...
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Q: I spent a single season in Sydney Grade cricket with the Eastern Suburbs Cricket Club in 2000/2001. A season that started with much promise and ended with numbing mediocracy. This is my story of trying and failing to achieve relevance.

I lobbed in Sydney in April 2000, from the Country sporting mecca of Wagga Wagga. I knew nothing of the Sydney grade cricket scene, other than the fact that the Eastern Suburbs Cricket Club was a short stroll from my workplace.

I made enquiries with the club secretary via phone and was told that I should fax a copy of my ‘cricketing resume’. What I produced was the best piece of fiction written since Herman Melville penned Moby Dick.

https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/175/craig-dodson/blog/534/my-single-season-of-mediocrity-in-sydney-grade-cricket
blog post
Do you love club cricket? I do. So much so that I wrote a book about it
The Book is a celebration of cricket and the fantastic people and clubs that help underpin it.My mate ‘CAT’ says it is the best (and only) book he has read since year those bloody year 1 ...
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Q: A View of Australia From Fine Leg

The light bulb moment occurred at 2.00am on Day 2 of the Second Test of the 2019 Ashes Series. Staying up to the wee hours watching the pulsating cricket on offer, I realised how much I missed the game and came up with an idea…

Ten games for ten different clubs across Australia during the 2019/20 season. I climbed into bed at the end of play (3.00am local time) and tapped Mrs D on the shoulder to tell her my brilliant idea. Not particularly thrilled at being woken at such an hour, she simply replied, ‘You’re having a mid-life-crisis, go to sleep.’

Looking back, I think it was just my way of clinging onto that boyish dream of playing cricket - the thrill of hitting one in the middle; the adulation of ten teammates slapping you on the back after taking a wicket; a cold beer in the sheds after taking 2/72 off 28 overs, figures that can only excite an off-spinner.

https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/175/craig-dodson/blog/1371/craig-dodson-a-view-of-australia-from-fine-leg
blog post
Craig Dodson - A View of Australia From Fine Leg
The light bulb moment occurred at 2.00am on Day 2 of the Second Test of the 2019 Ashes Series. Staying up to the wee hours watching the pulsating cricket on offer, I realised how much I missed the ...
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Q: The beauty of the Tooheys Cup - Wagga Wagga v Albury

Can you imagine half the Australian Test cricket team playing an exhibition game in the county regions a week before the first Ashes Test? Well, it happened in the 1990s thanks to the magic of the Tooheys Cup!

As a cricket mad kid growing up in Wagga Wagga, there was nothing like the thrill of when the Tooheys Cup rolled into town. The concept saw the full strength NSW Sheffield Shield Team play an exhibition match between two local towns (in my case Wagga vs Albury), with 6 shield players on each side intertwined with 5 of the best local players from each town.

A brilliant concept that gave the bush boys a chance to pit their skills against cricketing royalty and a chance for all country cricket lovers to see their heroes in the flesh. A legitimate match where the lads went hard.

https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/175/craig-dodson/blog/1185/the-beauty-of-the-tooheys-cup-wagga-wagga-v-albury
blog post
The beauty of the Tooheys Cup - Wagga Wagga v Albury
Can you imagine half the Australian Test cricket team playing an exhibition game in the county regions a week before the first Ashes Test? Well, it happened in the 1990s thanks to the magic of the ...
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Q: Narrandera Cricket Club - A View of Australia From Fine Leg

I awoke on Saturday morning to blue skies, comfortable temperatures and a great day for cricket. The weather in Australia never ceases to amaze me. We set off from Albury to Leeton where I was to play an away game for the Narrandera Cricket Club.

Narrandera is a small town of about 4000 people at the junction of the Newell and Sturt highways, adjacent to the mighty Murrumbidgee River and about 100 kilometres from Wagga Wagga.

As a Wagga boy, I knew the region well. In my last match in Narrandera 25 years ago, I was playing in a junior representative carnival. I got future NSW player Dominic Thornely to dolly a caught and bowled back to me, which I subsequently dropped, when he was on 5. Luckily, he didn’t make me pay and was dismissed soon after for 126!

I played this away game in Leeton which is located about 30 kilometres from Narrandera. Leeton Cricket Club’s home ground is Mark Taylor Oval as he was born in Leeton.

https://www.cricconnect.com/profile/175/craig-dodson/blog/1112/narrandera-cricket-club-a-view-of-australia-from-fine-leg
blog post
Narrandera Cricket Club - A View of Australia From Fine Leg
Match 7 – Narrandera Cricket Club, Saturday 11 January 2020Not that long ago it seemed that everyone played cricket. Teams were always full and competitions were thriving. ...
question
Q: The light bulb moment occurred at 2.00am on Day 2 of the Second Test of the 2019 Ashes Series. Staying up to the wee hours watching the pulsating cricket on offer, I realised how much I missed the game and came up with an idea…
Ten games for ten different clubs across Australia during the 2019/20 season. I climbed into bed at the end of play (3.00am local time) and tapped Mrs D on the shoulder to tell her my brilliant idea. Not particularly thrilled at being woken at such an hour, she simply replied, ‘You’re having a mid-life-crisis, go to sleep.’
Looking back, I think it was just my way of clinging onto that boyish dream of playing cricket - the thrill of hitting one in the middle; the adulation of ten teammates slapping you on the back after taking a wicket; a cold beer in the sheds after taking 2/72 off 28 overs, figures that can only excite an off-spinner.
At 41, life was great – beautiful wife, gorgeous kids, steady job, nice house etc. With all that, there was something nagging at me. A desire to have one last crack at doing something I used to love.
It would be too self-indulgent to make this just about me. I went through a very rough patch with depression in my early 30s. In a short period of time I lost my job and then broke up with my partner. It seemed like the end of the world.
I shut myself off. Life was excruciating for a period of six months. I was going nowhere fast.
Over the course of time, and with the help of many important people I recovered.
Life is now great, however, I have never forgotten those dark days, so it was a natural consequence to want to support a mental health charity.
If I couldn’t convince ten clubs across Australia to give up a playing sport to a balding 41-year-old cricketer well past his prime, then the project would be over before it started.
Having played cricket for twenty years, I had a great network of mates spread across the country could ask a favour and hopefully turn out for their clubs.
Every club I approached said yes. All up, it was about 10,000 kilometres of travel to navigate Australia via planes, trains and automobiles!
Over the next 6 months the games ticked by and it was the ultimate cricketing and lifetime adventure. With the exception of getting married and having kids it was the best thing I have ever done. In total, we raised $9,000 for mental health.
I will be forever grateful that I had a crack at this great cricketing adventure.

I also wrote a book – A View of Australia from Fine Leg
blog post
My single season of mediocrity in Sydney Grade Cricket
I spent a single season in Sydney Grade cricket with the Eastern Suburbs Cricket Club in 2000/2001. A season that started with much promise and ended with numbing mediocracy. This is my story of tr ...

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