WILLOWFEST Australian Cricket Club Championships president Anthony Telfer and international ambassador Baljinder Sandhu will jet off next month to take Willowfest to the world.
The pair will fly to Dubai, New Dehli and Singapore to talk about Willowfest with two international teams who have registered for this year’s 40th tournament.
“We’re going on November 14th for a 10-day tour to talk about Willowfest to two teams that have registered to play Willowfest,” Telfer said.
“One is from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, the GM Cricket Academy.”
The other team – the Indian Twenty20 Cricket Federation – features a former
Indian ODI and Twenty20 cricketer, Rahul Sharma.
“He debuted (in Twenty20 cricket) against Australia in Melbourne (in 2012),” Sandhu said.
“He played in the Indian Premier League too and there’s another who played IPL.”
Telfer and Sandhu will speak with the ITCF secretary Piyush Rana – one of the founders of Twenty20 cricket in India – as part of their visit.
While abroad, Telfer and Sandhu will meet the Singapore Cricket Association secretary about Willowfest, as well as the Indian Junior Players League.
After last year’s visit by the Cricket
Council of India team to Willowfest, which resulted in team members disappearing before flying back to their country, Telfer said he and Sandhu were using the issue as a learning experience.
“These teams are paying for us to go over there and see them,” Telfer said.
“And we’ve been working with the Australian embassies over there to make sure we give the due diligence necessary to make sure they are legitimate and they are not coming over here to do runners again.
“They are paying for myself and Sandhu to visit them, meet them, meet their management, look at their structures.”
Telfer said it was important to keep pushing forward with Willowfest’s international expansion.
“It was a great experience last year but things didn’t work out quite like they were planned to,” Telfer said.
“But we are just going to keep trying to push on, we’re getting a lot of support from Wentworth Shire and the Mildura Rural City Council as well, so we will keep trying to develop what we tried last year.”
Discussions in Singapore will also be held also around potential Willowfest world championships.
On the home front, Telfer said Willowfest was continually looking for volunteers to help run the annual carnival from December 27-30.
Angus Dearlove – Journalist – Sunraysia Daily
Picture – Kieran Mangan – Sunraysia Daily
