21 November 2023
The Secret Harbour Dockers’ wish to give back to its community of players is granted
Secret Harbour Dockers Cricket Club is giving back to their community, thanks to the NRMA Insurance $15,000 Community Cricket Club Grant.
Secret Harbour Dockers Cricket Club in Whadjuk Nyoongar Country in West Australia is so proud of its Integrated Cricket League (ICL) for intellectually disabled players. When sponsorship manager, Michael Mcilwaine, secured an NRMA Insurance grant of $15,000, the Club knew that one of the first things it was going to fund was a complete new uniform to reward this team that it had formed seven years ago. The ICL team had won its Grand Final last year – for the second year in a row.
We’re good at cricket and we’re getting better at it each year, but what we’re even better at is inclusivity,” says Junior President, Ganesh Chaudhuri, “making sure everyone has an opportunity to play and enjoy the game every summer.
The ICL team helps players with disabilities such as autism, Down Syndrome and cerebral palsy enjoy the experience of learning skills, collaborating in a team and playing a competitive sport. Even winning in a competitive sport.
The NRMA Insurance grant also helped the Club to slash its junior fees to $99 regardless of age and gender, at a time when cost of living pressures were making it difficult for some families to enjoy activities such a community cricket. It was a huge help to the club and an enormous service to the community.
Being able able to support our members with lower fees and offer the best form of cricket, that’s an important thing we're doing for the community,” Michael notes.
The grant also bought a gate to keep the Club’s valuable ítems secure and new uniforms for the women’s and girls’ teams. This help came at a particularly opportune time for the club, helping it to attract some of the 26% new registered players among women and girls in cricket clubs, triggered by the Women’s World Cup.
The help didn’t stop there, the grant was also used to hire a legal professional to rewrite the Club’s constitution. “These rules that govern our Club were originally written in 2014 and times change,” he says. “A few things had needed to be adjusted for a while because they were making it hard to govern the Club. It was a big help for us because it wasn't volunteers time trying to figure out the legal jargon.”
We're a misfit club in a way, but we all kind of come together and we might not necessarily be successful all the time. But we certainly all have a good crack at it,
Michael exemplifies the spirit of the Dockers and its “having a good crack at it attitude”. He joined as a player eight years ago when it was recruiting for its second year of senior players. In his first season, a spot opened up as secretary. “Community cricket clubs struggle a bit for volunteers and without them you can't really run a club. I'm happy to give up some of my time just to make everyone else's life a bit easier,” he says.
Michael admits that it was quite difficult at the start but it was good to be involved in the inner workings of a club. “Being a player and on the committee has allowed me to help by deflecting a lot of players' concerns when they have comments about how the club's being run because I can see it from both angles,” he adds.
He has moved from secretary to events manager to sponsorship, then merchandise and secretary again. The sponsorship manager role is his most recent. He’s not aiming for stardom, he says, like being president. He’s a lot like the Club itself, winning isn’t the focus. “I just like to help,” he says.
