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Cricket Is Not War: Simon Moyle meets Raees Ahmadzai in Afghanistan
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Tag Archives: street cricket
Compton Cricket Club vs. Urban Seed, Laneway Cricket, Melbourne
Compton Cricket Club’s Australian Tour www.cricketouttacompton.com.au commences in late Jan/Feb 2011 and will include a game of Laneway Cricket in Melbourne’s iconic Rutledge Place off Hosier Lane against inner city community organisation Urban Seed www.urbanseed.org
Laneway Cricket Melbourne Finale 2010
Australia Day/ Indian Republic Day Harmony Cricket Match
Urban Seed’s Credo Cricket and Cricket Victoria partnered to do what they do best on Australia Day hosting a fun match between Victoria Police and Indian students who are friends of Urban Seed through our local connections with the Barkly Street Uniting Church Cricket Club and Footscray Baptist Church.
Having run a well publicised street cricket match with Police and Indian students in the city last year; in Footscray on Indian Independence Day (August 15) and at the Diwali Festival in September, the Jai Ho Festival at Myer Music Bowl (celebrating January 26 as both Australia and Indian Republic Day) proved the next perfect location to celebrate the connections that cricket can create.
Urban Seed’s Marcus Curnow said,
“Reports of street violence against Indians in Melbourne on Australia Day and reports coming from India that Australians may not be able play cricket in Mumbai are saddening and the responses of extremists. The Australia Day/ Inidan Republic Day match between Victoria Police and students is a statement that cricket should not be used to bowl hand grenades but can build partnerships that bring our nations together. No matter your background you are always welcome to play cricket in Melbourne and this is made a reality with Urban Seed running matches each week in Footscray and on city streets and through initiatives from Cricket Victoria and Harmony Australia, such as ticket giveaways and developing pathways to cricket umpiring as employment for Indian students.”
Given the profile he has had on the issue, particularly in India recently, it was fantastic to have the Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police, Simon Overland participating in the match. The Spirit of the day was captured well in his partnership with Ravi Bhatia the CEO of Primus Telecom. Their running between the wickets was highly entertaining and went some way to demonstrating that the cultural differences between the countries could be overcome with good spirit, improved communication…and a bit of luck!
See various reports at Indian Local.com.au , Cricket Victoria, The West Australian and Urban Seed.
Later in the evening some Urban Seed Credo Cricketers had opportunity to keep talking cricket when they joined with locals in West Footscray at the busy Indian hub of Barkly Street Village for an Australian’s listening to Indian’s ‘Listening Post’ event organised by members of the Footscray Church of Christ.
Next Local ‘Listening Posts’
Tues 2nd Feb 8pm-10pm [meet outside Public Library on Barkly St West Footscray]
Sat 6th Feb 10am – 12pm [meet outside Subway store at end of Footscray tram line/opposite Footscray station]
Bring: some small folding chairs, Thermos and mugs, plus Indian/Australian colours and banners
Details: Greg Gow 0434 982 070 or Cara Munro 0420 418 16
Yewsie and Custard prepare for the match...feelin the Harmony!
Credo Cricket meets Cricket for Change in London
- Cricket for Change’s ‘Street 20 World XI’ at the Honorable Artillery Ground, London
Credo Cricket’s Phil Yew talked with Urban Seed Director, Marcus Curnow about his recent cricket adventures:
So Marcus the last we heard you were playing cricket with ‘gangsters’ and Hollywood Execs in LA. What were the cricketing highlights from your UK travels?
Well the lowlight, without doubt, was having the Aussies lose the Ashes at the same moment I was arriving at Heathrow. Not great timing lads! The highlight was getting to play at the Honorable Artillery Ground.
Why?
It’s an amazing paddock near Finsbury Circus, smack bang in the middle of London and so surrounded by buildings that I couldn’t even get a mobile phone signal. It’s perhaps the oldest known venue for cricket, which apparently ceased for a time there in 1780 after a bout of match fixing…. Perhaps they sent the culprits over to Australia with the First Fleet because the MCC and the Lords ground took over from about then.
So how did someone of your cricketing ability get to play at such a distinguished venue?
Now, go easy…I was a guest of Cricket for Change, (C4C) and that was my real reason for being there and the real highlight. They are a fantastic, charity that has been running community cricket programs in the UK since they began as a response to the Brixton riots in 1981. They are a great mix of cricketing characters who have basically made it their mission to be at the forefront of each innovation in community cricket. They’ve run coaching apprenticeships, leagues, and participation programs with at risk youth, in schools and prisons and with multi-ethnic groups from disadvantaged neighbourhoods. They have in many ways pioneered much of women’s and disability cricket at grassroots and higher levels in the UK and now increasingly overseas.
Smashing cultural boundaries through cricket
by Kate Allen
Once again, we are thrilled at what Credo Cricket has been able to inspire. In light of recent attacks on Indian students highlighted in the media, the Premier, Indian students, Victorian police as well as Bushrangers Damien Wright, John Hastings and Will Sheridan played in a six-a-side match recently at Birrarung Marr.
Urban Seed’s Executive Officer and Credo Cricket legend Marcus Curnow did the commentary for the game. “It was great to see so such a big turnout. Credo Cricket invites Indian students to a free hit of cricket each week out in the western suburbs which creates an important base for relationship and support in the midst of the real issues,” he said.
Read more here. http://www.urbanseed.org/News/Smashingculturalboundariesthroughcricket.aspx
Cricket Victoria report: http://www.cricketvictoria.com.au/plugins/newsfeed.cgi?rm=content&plugin_data_id=27195;group_name=mainsite
Melbourne Laneway Cricket Carnival ’08 Week 3
March 26, 2008
Greetings Cricket Lovers, we hope you have had a happy and blessed Easter. Footy season is upon us and unfortunately the Victorian Bushrangers may need most of it to chase down the total NSW set for them in the PURA CUP Final!
The weather remains ‘cricket like’ however and Round 3 of Melbourne’s inaugural Laneway Cricket Carnival saw teams brave the autumn hot spell in Latrobe Lane.
Kaz, Sharls and Sonja shone for the Middletons/Living Room Dumpsters in their resplendent red outfits and laughed their way to a record high score of 78 runs. The Goldman Sachs JBWere / Salvos Alleycats built slowly toward the total but at the height of the late charge were stopped in their tracks by Pommy, filling in for the Dumpsters, who obtained the first Laneway HAT-TRICK with 3 consecutive clean bowleds, including that of the amazing Mevan, in full flight, twice! Alleycats 39.
The second game was once again a thriller. For the third time in as many weeks a team well behind in the chase pulled off an unlikely and miraculous victory. Nathan, Tom, Stu, Matt, Scott and Chris for the PricewaterhousCoopers/Urban Seed Binjuice set the pace by pushing the record laneway team score out to a new frontier of 95. They then bowled well at the Mallesons Milkcraters who struggled to 32 off 8 overs. Enter Woodsy from Urban Seed’s Credo Cricket and Michael from Malleys needing an unlikely 64 off their 16 balls. The short boundary to the Chinatown end of Latrobe Lane had meant that the reverse sweep had been tried a few times throughout the evening night but with little success. Throwing caution to the wind Woodsy and Mike adopted a risky last over strategy of reverse sweeping everything which confused the fielding side and the runs piled up. Michael from Malley’s scooped the final delivery high into Chinatown and the game stopped. The umpire checked with the blokes on the BBQ as to whether or not it was a four or six. Delay, confusion, controversy, tension…’oh the drama of laneway’….. finally the ball was called six and the Milkcraters had got home by the barest of margins in a fairy tale.
Once again the pedestrian traffic is a unique part of the Laneway Cricket experience and our “game off” moments this round included someone working at Parliament House who left a card, keen to promote the concept; a businessman who said “this is the most innovative thing I’ve seen in a long time”; and a drunk Irishman who held a game up for five minutes because he just wanted to bowl one delivery!
This Friday we invite you to say farewell to Cricket Season at the home of Urban Seed’s Credo Cafe in Baptist Place off Little Collins Street between Swanston and Russell. Baptist Place is like the Lords of Laneway, the place where Credo Cricket began as a response to the heroin crisis back in 2000. It is still the location of Urban Seed’s residential community and our regular open lunch program. Feel free to invite friends and others who have shown some interest, it will be a great celebration!
