Australia’s best indoor cricketers will converge on Werribee Indoor Sports Centre (WISC) for a week-long carnival starting on Saturday night.
The Australian Open will pit state against state, with national titles up for grabs in the open men, open women, under 20 men, under 20 women and the Lord’s Taverners Shield for intellectually disabled competitors.
There’s no bigger indoor cricket event in this country, and the tournament will be even more fierce in a world cup year. Australian selectors will keep a close eye on form as they look to finalise the squad for October’s Indoor Cricket World Cup in Wellington.
WISC spokesman David Pugsley said the Australian Open would be the biggest event held at the Riverside Avenue centre.
“We’ve never had anything this big,” he said.
“The hotels will be full – a lot of places are already booked out.
“There’s teams coming from every state and territory.”
Victoria will square off with the highly-fancied Queensland at 7pm on Saturday.
The action will be spread across five courts over the next three days, with play beginning at 8.30am and running until late.
To maximise crowds, the Victorians will regularly feature in the 7.45pm game to ensure people have enough time to get home from work to catch the Big V in action.
The final two days of the tournament will be streamed live at www.cricket.com.au with coverage including two cameras and commentators.
Organisers hope that a major free-to-air network will pick up the rights in future years.
“The Friday and Saturday games will be live streamed over the internet,” Pugsley said.
“We’re trying to make sure it’s a good production so it gets a lot of viewers so it’ll be taken up by mainstream next year.
“There will be some top grade cricket with lots of noise and lots of atmosphere, so we’re hoping everyone will get down here to cheer on the local teams.”
