Cricket comp to welcome royalty

THE Mildura Royals will become the region’s newest competitive cricket club when they join the second and third division of the Sunraysia Cricket Association for the 2024/25 season.

Formed in September last year, the Royals have rapidly grown from a small group of Southern Indian families into a diverse multicultural club franchise that participates in volleyball, badminton and now cricket.

Club member Manu Joshua said since December, the members had held weekly cricket skills sessions on Saturdays and casual cricket matches on Sundays, and enthusiasm quickly grew.

“The boys were kind of like ‘can we just play cricket, like hardball cricket?’ because we do play tennis ball cricket every Sunday,” Joshua said.

“There was a thought, why don’t we just put a team up?”

Ahead of the coming Sunraysia Cricket Association season, club members had spoken to the league’s president and board, who informed them they would need a green wicket and a clubhouse to be part of the SCA competition.

“We were told with SCA, you don’t have an opportunity because you don’t have a club, you don’t have a history and you don’t have a ground,” Joshua said.

As an alternative, the Royals aimed to introduce two teams into the Red Cliffs Cricket Association during the Summer and build the club from there.

As luck would have it, the Cardross Recreation Reserve had become available during the football offseason as no other clubs were using it, and the Royals are in the process of applying for a user agreement.

Catching wind of this, higher ups at SCA then got back in contact with the Royals, and said arrangements could in fact be made to bring them into the fold.

“We are getting an opportunity that we never thought we’d be getting, a chance in a SCA, because there’s big clubs here,” Mr Joshua said.

“They were openly welcoming us and they asked us did want to play 3rd and 4th Division?

“We are like, no, we have some boys like really good so we will put at Seconds and Thirds team in and they were really happy.”

The Mildura Royals family now boasts more than 90 competitors across various sports.

They have A, B and C Grade teams in the Sunraysia Volleyball League, and host social badminton sessions on Friday evenings.

Their membership includes people from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia, Italy, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Samoa, the Cook Islands, the Torres Strait Islands, and Australia.

“At the moment, it’s really multicultural,” Joshua said.

“We’re doing family get-togethers, then as a family, as a club, we’re doing our blood donation twice a year.

“It started as a mental wellbeing group, we just added our wives, kids, children, everyone into it.

“The club has grown so much in a year, so we are so proud.”

As more members come on board, the Royals are exploring casual soccer matches on Saturdays, and are considering creating a futsal team.

While the SCA season approaches, the club needs to finalise uniforms and secure a team sponsor for their two competitive cricket sides.

“It’s a big thing for us, but we are hopeful,” Joshua said.

“When we have a look at our volleyball and everything, we started with four people.

“We think we can do it and we’re trying our best.”

As they get set for their cricket competition debut, the Mildura Royals are hosting a Challenger T10 Tennis Ball Bash Cup on September 28, where the team that wins the tournament takes home $1000, and the runner up gets $500.

Entrants need to register before September 20, at a cost of $300 a team.