This is very much a personal opinion piece. The opinions of other members of Macquarie University Cricket Club may vary.
Compared to others, I have not been involved at Macquarie University Cricket Club that long; a mere 14 years have passed since I arrived on Australian shores in September 2006 eager to impress and improve my game. I had come from playing cricket on beautiful grounds in the South West English countryside, where teas were served and we had followers that would watch us week in, week out, and a bar at the club for socialising. My first impression of MUCC was a midweek evening training session at the world famous Sydney Cricket Ground, I could hardly believe where I was! No disrespect at all is meant by this, but it was a far cry from playing at a ground like Barton in Torquay (not the worst but not my favourite) to being at the SCG. And the club colours of Green and Gold matched my beloved Bovey Tracey CC; it's almost as if I was meant to be there, a home from home.
And then there were the club grounds; The Main Oval at the University Playing Fields is a theatre, enclosed on three sides by magnificent grass banks, topped on one side by a large pavilion and an almost never ending staircase onto the oval. This was a spectacular sight, and I couldn't wait to just play. The club was booming, or so it seemed. We had a large group of players, a large core of members who loved the club, loved the facilities and most of all loved winning regularly, and had the skill to back it up. The club was almost ubiquitously achieving finals or Premierships in at least one of the grades most seasons, be it a Shires, Masters, or 5th and 6th Grade level.
When I returned for another season in 2009/2010 the landscape was a little different. That magnificent theatrical cauldron of amateur cricket that was the Main Oval was no longer available for cricket. Aside from Sydney FC using the Main Oval, the University had said it cost too much to maintain for cricket, but it was perfectly fine for... ahem... "Quidditch". Yes, a fictional sport inspired by the Harry Potter books. Granted, the equipment needed for Quidditch is minimal in terms of maintenance, and there seemed to be an upturn in the number of people playing it. Now if you're reading this and you play Quidditch, I'm not insulting your sport or suggesting for a second it is less important, far from it. I am merely using the relative history of the sport compared to cricket to illustrate a point; that Macquarie University, or at least individuals who made decisions at Macquarie University, gave up caring about cricket many years ago.
We still had enough pull and enough of a player base to be relatively successful, indeed that year 4th Grade won the Premiership and I was lucky enough to Captain an Under 24's side full of precocious talent that was our best chance of winning a Premiership that had eluded the club since forming in 1968. We made it to the Grand Final. We lost to Strathfield. It both saddens and disgusts me to say that no side in future will have the chance to better that, that a mediocre captain and average player such as I will be the most successful Under 24's Captain in the Club's history, and we didn't win anything.
From 2013 I was permanently here in Australia and a full member of MUCC, including committee duties. It was around this time that I became aware of just how difficult the University were to deal with. I mean, it costs far too much to maintain a couple of cricket fields but (strongly laced with sarcasm) spending millions of dollars on a corporate brand change is fine, right? It makes complete sense to go from a brand that had been part of your identity since the 1960's of Green and Gold with a logo of the Macquarie lighthouse, to Red, Burgundy, Grey with a Lotus Leaf logo in 2011, doesn't it? Oh, and just three years later in 2014 to spend millions on another change to Red and Black and bringing back the lighthouse?! But cricket fields cost too much to maintain.
And slowly, year on year, the facilities were either removed, denied or not maintained. The training pitches were a disgrace for years, it surprises me there weren't more injuries. The "changing rooms" were demountable sheds that the club had to fund on top of the exorbitant and extortionate fees the University charged for using them, even with a supposed 80% discount. To be clear, with that "80% discount" the fees were still three or four times more than other clubs paid for their COUNCIL MAINTAINED grounds. There is a direct correlation between Macquarie University's removal of facilities from the cricket club and the decline in quantity and quality of the cricketers prepared to play for the club.
I think the disdain in my writing is showing through, the resentment that I and countless other members have that our club which had success and the potential to achieve more has been reduced to what it is today. We find difficult to accept. Whilst Macquarie University make a relatively understandable business case for why it costs them to keep cricket going, there is even more evidence to suggest that with just a little investment from the University they could have THE best facilities for cricket in Sydney, not just Shires cricket but Grade/Premier Cricket too. That, in turn, would mean they could be the best in Australia. That's not me putting on rose-tinted glasses, that is the reality that Sydney club cricket is amongst the strongest club cricket competitions in the world.
The Main Oval is wasted on Quidditch. It's a decent field for football and rugby (league and union) but there are dedicated football fields around the complex for that already. Lacrosse...? Maybe. AFL? Of course, during winter most cricket ovals are turned into AFL ovals, it is to be expected. An Oval with the potential to be that majestic deserves to have cricket played on it. Cricket is part of Australia's sporting identity. The role of Australian Cricket Captain is commonly accepted to be second in importance only to the Prime Minister. It is absolutely abhorrent that a University that shares its name with a Governor that is largely credited with shaping the society of Australia into what it is today refuses to acknowledge or offer any meaningful support to a sport that very society is based on.
I'll reiterate, I have nothing against any of the other sports at all. I actively encourage people to take up as many sports as possible. The two other main Universities in Sydney both have good cricketing facilities. Granted, they play in the Premier competition, however as mentioned before with a little investment Macquarie Uni's facilities could be the best in Sydney and that in turn attracts better players. That then increases the level of cricket being played, and given that MUCC had previously entered teams into the Grade competition a few decades ago (for six seasons) another foray into Grade/Premier could have eventually been on the cards. I had heard rumours of an interest from Sydney Thunder to use the Main Oval to host WBBL games. Given the increase in popularity of Women's Cricket in general, the chance to be on the world stage, what's to say World Cup games couldn't have been hosted in future? It's a complete lack of any kind of foresight on the part of the Uni to just put cricket in the "Too Hard" basket.
That is what is most galling and frustrating for the members of a once great club, past and present. We see the potential for the future, because we know the history of the club. And the frustration is slowly turning to a sadness and mourning, that a 52 year old club has been fighting an ever-growing cancer in dealing with certain individuals who make decisions. We did our best to treat it. We did our best to save Shires Cricket at our beloved club, and now because of them our club has slipped into the palliative care of so-called "Park Cricket", because Macquarie University themselves are pulling the plug on the life-support. They will eventually allow building another artificial football field for Sydney FC on the Northern Oval (one isn't enough, plus the other Ovals they already use), having already removed the cricket facilities on the Main Oval a decade before. How long before the last remaining cricket-worthy oval, the Gwilliam Oval named after our legendary President from 1969-1979 Ross Gwilliam, is also lost to "development"? Although I never met the man, I have a feeling he would be turning in his grave knowing that the hard work he put into growing MUCC into what it was when he handed over has been curtailed in this way.
We celebrate the past successes. On a personal note, if it was not for MUCC I would not have the life I have today. I even wrote a couple of years ago about it HERE. I will always be grateful to those who enabled me to come over and play for such a wonderful club. I have always been loyal to my clubs; my hometown club Bovey Tracey CC in Devon, and MUCC. I always said as long as MUCC exists I would not play for another Shires club, despite many friends at many clubs asking. Now it seems if I ever want to play Shires Cricket again I may not have a choice, and that is something that cuts me and my club-mates incredibly deep.
