Did you know that the Ginninderra Cricket Club was initially started in 1854?

The proud community cricket club has a rich history and attained grade status in 1979 which sees it now compete in the ACT Premier Cricket grade competition—the highest level of grade cricket in the region.

It’s also an inclusive club, fielding teams in all six senior grades and the women’s competition as well as junior sides for boys and girls of all ages.

Over the summer months, the club’s junior development squad, The Tiger Academy, has been hard at work (and play) developing the talents of young cricket lovers, with the support of a sponsorship grant from Ginninderry.

This passionate encouragement and focus on inclusion is just one of the reasons the club won the 2019 Premier Cricket Club of the Year at the Cricket Australia’s A Sport for All Awards.

According to Cindie Deeker, Ginninderra Cricket Club Treasurer, “It is incredibly important that we provide everyone the ability to come together through sport – it transcends divides between all communities! We’re proud of being able to offer the Tiger Academy as one of the club’s offerings that Ginninderry supports.”

The Tiger Academy has been formally operating since 2018. In addition to the skills sessions, over the years players have gained information relating to mindfulness, mental toughness and nutrition. These sessions have previously been provided by Mindavation, physiotherapists and registered nutritionists.

This made a huge impact on Thomas Hogan, a first-grade player and member of the ACT Under-17 male team, whose time with The Tiger Academy allowed him to refine the technical components of his game whilst helping him transition from junior cricket to grade cricket with access to some of the best cricket minds in Canberra.

“From a young age I was lucky enough to start learning and developing new skills alongside the likes of Sam Gaskin, Rhys Healy and Lukey Ryan to name a few. The technical components of the Tiger Academy helped my game significantly. I also found the sessions on nutrition, sleep, and mental techniques within the game were also extremely valuable at a young age.”

And from this carefully nurtured development pool comes serious talent.

At the more competitive end of the field, the club has entered teams in the ACT Premier Cricket Competition and Veteran’s Cricket Competition and has had several players each season represent the ACT, including in the National Second XI competition, Comets, Meteors and many National teams across age levels. In recent years, players from the club have gone on to play in the Big Bash.

The club also takes enormous pride in hosting the Belco Bash annually as a service to the community, a multicultural cricket festival which brings together local players representing India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh to face off in a round robin competition, with the top two placed teams battling for the Belco Bash Championship. It is as much a loved event on the cultural calendar as it is the sporting calendar and has also been the recipient of a sponsorship grant from Ginninderry.

The Ginninderry Grant Program is now open, with applications closing on 12 April 2024. Find out more here.