Photo Credit: Cricket NSW
Cricket NSW is proud to announce the winners of the 2024 Community Cricket Awards. This year, there are 15 categories, two additional to the 13 from last year.
The five major categories from the awards list include two club-based awards, Community Club of the Year — won by the Northern Districts Butchers Cricket Club this time — and Women & Girls Initiative, which was won by Hornsby Ku-ring-gai & Hills District Cricket Association for their Friday evening carnival-like girls’ cricket competition that goes just beyond the game, with coloured unforms, pink balls, dancing and a whole lot of fun.
Among the major individual-based awards, the Volunteer of the Year Award went to Annelise Halls for her work with junior cricket within the small rural community of Boorowa. Boorowa is a town situated within the Hilltops region of NSW with a population of 1800. Halls is a local mother of four and heads up the club’s Cricket Blast program. The club boasts 42 Cricket Blasters and sees a third of all children aged 5-10 in the town enrolled in Cricket Blast.
Twenty-two-year-old Naveen Sivanathan, the vice-president of Kissing Point Cricket Club, won the Young Leader of the Year Award, for his four years of dedicated service to the club as a volunteer and a committee member, while also being a Blast coordinator and a friend and mentor to the club’s 250 plus junior cricketers.
The two new categories this year are Woolworths Cricket Blast Coordinator of the Year and Community Facility Project of the Year. The Woolworths Cricket Blast Coordinator of the Year aims to recognise a coordinator who has gone above and beyond to get our youngest players to play and love cricket. This award was won for the first time first was won by Ash Hockin from Albury who is an amazing mentor to the young cricketers at his East Albury Cricket Club. The Maitland City Council took the honours for the inaugural Community Facility Project of the Year award.
In the city, clubs and Associations in Manly-Warringah and Northern Districts led the charge. The Northern Districts Butchers Cricket Club won Club of the Year, while Manly Warringah Junior Cricket Association (MWJCA) won the Junior Cricket Initiative of the Year.
All NSW award winners have been nominated for Cricket Australia Community Cricket Awards, to be announced during the third week of May 2024.
Full list of CNSW Community Cricket Award winners:
| Category | CNSW winner | Town/City/Region |
| Celebrating Cricket in Schools | Melanie Reeves
|
Murwillumbah, Far North |
| Community Cricket Association of the year | Central Coast Cricket Association
|
Central Coast |
| Community Cricket Club of the Year | Northern Districts Butchers Cricket Club
|
Northern Districts, Sydney |
| Community Cricket Coach of the Year | Shane McNamara
|
Prestons, Sydney |
| Community Cricket Partnership of the Year | Manly Warringah District Cricket Club
|
Manly Warringah, Sydney |
| Community Facility Project of the Year | Maitland City Council
|
Maitland, Newcastle |
| Community Match Official of the Year | Phillip Turtle
|
Kurrajong |
| Cricket Blast Coordinator of the Year | Ash Hockin
|
Albury |
| Inclusive & Diversity Initiative of the Year | Schofields Cricket Club
|
Schofields, Western Sydney |
| Indoor Facility of the Year | Northern District Cricket Club
|
Northern Districts, Sydney |
| Junior Initiative of the Year | Manly Warringah Junior Cricket Association
|
Manly Warringah, Sydney |
| Technology & Media Initiative of the Year | Manly District Cricket Club
|
Manly, Sydney |
| Volunteer of the Year | Annelise Halls
|
Boorowa, Southern Inland |
| Women & Girls Initiative of the Year | Hornsby Ku-ring-gai & Hills District Cricket Association
|
Hornsby & Hills District, Sydney |
| Young Leader of the Year | Naveen Sivanathan
|
South Turramurra, Sydney |
