CAW chairman Michael Erdlejac is the “happiest man in town” after a hugely successful Border Bash on Tuesday.
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Erdlejac thinks it’s the start of something special, after a massive crowd of 9662 rolled through the gates at Lavington Oval.
“For the work that everybody has done, to get over 9500 people to a game of cricket on a Tuesday night in December is incredible,” he said.
“Getting that crowd proves cricket is Australia’s best summertime sport and the best family-orientated sport.
“Clint Cooper (Melbourne Stars CEO) said we ticked all the boxes and they will definitely be back.
“Wodonga Council, Albury Council, Cricket Victoria, Cricket NSW, everybody’s happy.
“For Cricket Australia to give authorisation for the Stars and Thunder to come here means they trust Albury-Wodonga and everything in the process that we can work forward.
“CAW has never had to run such an event, so we need to work out what we’ve done right and things we have to change a little bit, but it has been magnificent.”
Erdlejac believes the focus for CAW when planning major cricket events in the future, will be to make them more family-friendly.
“There were a lot of families there and we’ve always spoken about the Big Bash being a family-orientated event,” he said.
“We’ve probably got to cater a bit more for all the families.
“We thought the work that Ros Walls, Robbie McKinlay, Reece Miller did with the schools to get a crowd of over 2000 for the WBBL game was fantastic.
“The way the young ladies came over after the game and gave signatures and got photos with the crowd, that’s what it’s all about.
“It’s not about me and you, it’s about the eight, 10, and 12-year-olds who see them on TV and say ‘look that’s the girl I got the photo with’, that’s the future of cricket.”
Volunteers from the majority of local cricket teams helped out on the day at various spots around the ground, which was a deliberate ploy from CAW.
“We could have gone the other way and given it to people to work,” Erdlejac said.
“This is the future of CAW, so if we can run this and get ourselves in a viable position, it actually benefits the local clubs.
“If you can make money out of an event you can spend it on things like sight screens, brand new rollers or applications for grants for clubs to upgrade their wickets or training facilities.
“We haven’t got that far yet, but I don’t think it will be an event we lost on and we’d be very happy if we broke even.”
