Cricket Mentoring enters first ever tournament - Northern Territory Cricket's Junior Strike League
Tom Scollay | July 19, 2024
A couple of weeks ago marked a significant milestone for Cricket Mentoring as we stepped onto the field for our first ever competitive matches.
In early May, I got a message from the father of a boy from Sydney who had been affected by a fraudulent cricket tour operator. The father was desperate to get some cricket for the boys whose upcoming tournament had been cancelled leaving them devastated.
7 weeks and a lot of work later, we were competing in Northern Territory Cricket's Junior Strike League tournament in Darwin.
It was an U17 tournament that featured the NT Development squad and teams from Victoria, South Australia and us - a group blended of 7 boys from Sydney and 6 from Perth.
For me, the week wasn’t about the scorecard. It was also another opportunity to mentor a passionate group of aspiring cricketers who have ambition to achieve great things in the game. Win or lose, our primary goal was to facilitate learning and development on and off the field.
It was about helping the boys understand what it takes to perform at their best and improve a little bit in all 6 Pillars of Success across the 8 days.
Without realising it at the time, it was awesome to mark the occasion of playing our first matches as Cricket Mentoring in the Northern
Territory - a place that is so special to me.
Returning to the NT took me full circle. I was born and raised in Alice Springs, played three seasons in Darwin and represented the NT in a number of underage national championships.
Arriving in Darwin brought back so many wonderful memories and was like coming home. It was a great chance to showcase the incredible facilities and weather to the boys (and a few parents) from Perth and Sydney. While most of Australia freezes in the middle of winter, it’s the dry season in Darwin, with the temperature consistently reaching over 30 degrees.
If you're interested in seeing how we went about it for the 8 days of training and matches, the video below (part 1 in a 3-part series) documented the experience and gives you a behind the scenes look into our team meetings and match reflections.
Well done to Gavin Dovey and his team for running such a great tournament.
