Much of what is written about cricket concerns barely 1 per cent of the people who play it, or are involved in it, in this country. It is no less true in these pages, where we concentrate largely on men’s and women’s professional cricket, here and abroad, at the expense of the recreational game.

Professional cricket may be newsworthy but it is not the heart and soul of the game, which resides in the clubs up and down the land — the 7,000 of them that make up the recreational game here, along with the many itinerant wandering sides — and through the volunteers, enthusiasts and committed week-in week-out players who keep the show rolling along.

One of the great strengths of Australian cricket was