The following email came through today from Neil Davies,
BCA junior development officer

Good morning friends
Yesterday saw Round 2 of the Junior Competition get under way and I want to draw your attention to an incident that occurred at the Napoleons/Sebastopol v East Ballarat U16 first XI game. Naps/Sebas has two lads who have come up from the U14 second XI team of last year and they are quite short little blokes. Despite their size, both bat quite well and are not at all afraid to get in behind the line of the ball. One of these kids got hit yesterday and down he went in quite a bit of pain. I went out to him and by the time I got there all the East Ballarat players had gathered around him. He had a nasty bruise on his abdomen and was in considerable pain. After a few minutes I asked him if he would like to come off and maybe bat later if he felt like he could and he answered that he would like to bat on. Instantly he said that, the East Ballarat captain, Will Madden, led his team in a big round of applause and some encouraging remarks to the little guy. Quite aside from my coaching role at Naps/Sebas, as the Junior Development Officer for the BCA I was very touched by the actions of the East Ballarat players. This is cricket bringing out the best in a great group of kids.

 

Congratulations to the East Ballarat cricket club, its junior coaches and administrators for the positive culture they have created, it gives our junior cricket in Ballarat a really good look.

 
Sincerely

 Neil

To all involved on behalf of the club I say thank you and well done, especially to Will and his team mates.
We tend to hear bad news stories often, so it’s important that we get good news stories out there too.
Aleceias message this year is that we are a family club run by families, these kids actions enforce that thought.