With the winter sun shining bright on the west coast, WA cricket lovers from all corners of the sub-continent and beyond continue to enjoy their passion for playing the sport year-round.
With four competitions being run during the year and with a plethora of teams in each tournament batting it out to win, the popularity of winter senior cricket is soaring.
The first competition, the Perth Community Premier League – held between February and April, featuring 28 teams and 400 participants – saw the Royal Strikers emerge victorious.
“With the Royal Strikers, most of the players were my friends before I started playing with them, as I knew them from work,” Royal Perth Strikers player Anmol Sharma said.
“They suggested coming down to the team and playing cricket with them as they knew that I had been playing cricket since my childhood.”
Hailing from Punjab, India, Sharma said that playing cricket year-round is the norm and it’s nice to be able to replicate those playing periods in Perth.
“I’ve been playing cricket since my childhood, from around 11 years old,” he reflected.
“I just love playing cricket, and being a senior player helps with sharing my knowledge to junior players.”
Sharma said he has seen an increase in representation of people from different countries getting involved in senior winter cricket in Perth.
“Over the years I’ve been noticing that the number of players with different backgrounds has increased in mainstream clubs which is great to see,” he said.
When it comes to putting these tournaments together, Perth Community Premier League competition organiser Sherran Peiris said it’s a pleasure to help grow multicultural cricket competitions in Perth.
“Where most of us come from in the sub-continent, cricket is played from January to December, so when members of our communities move to Perth it can be a bit of a struggle initially to find tournaments that play during winter,” he said.
“My background is from Sri Lanka, which is a cricket die-hard nation. Organising the competition was another way to meet new people who love the game and help out grassroots cricket.”
Peiris said being able to deliver quality senior cricket levels to the community ensures the continual progression of the players skill levels.
“It is quite important that we reach new players and families and target the people who are not playing regularly in Saturday cricket,” he said.
Helping players at the grassroots level to improve is also important.”
Currently the All Nations Cup tournament, featuring 64 teams and 1000 participants, is running with the finals currently being played, with the Sub Cup and SMT Cup rounding out the rest of the year.
The best performing teams from each tournament will be invited to participate in a qualifying tournament with the winners participating in the Perth Scorchers Culture Cup, which will be held in January 2025.