Moreton Cricket – a tour of sports plus charity
Moreton Cricket, based in the Southwestern suburbs of Brisbane, made a cricket tour to Sri Lanka. The Lankan leg of this tour was done under the guidance of Baba Sourjah, former Havelocks rugby star together with former Trinity sportsman Athula Unantenne.
The tour party consisted of 120 comprising – two junior teams – Blues and Reds with average age around 14 years, the Taverners team – Average age around 17 years – and the Legends – the Over-40 team. Each team played five matches in Colombo, Kandy and Galle.
Moreton Cricket’s inaugural tour was in 2002 and this was a period where the civil war was at its peak in Sri Lanka. This set the foundation to tour Sri Lanka uninterrupted for 18 consecutive years. The resilience of Sri Lankan people and strong will of Australians enabled Moreton Cricket to tour uninterrupted until 2019 for 18 consecutive years. The COVID consequences unfortunately prevented them coming over in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Just as crucial cricket is a vast charitable aspect is associated with these tours and some of the memorable moments from the past tours have been, — Following the devastating Tsunami and through the generosity of Australians, they pledged to cover the cost of building a preschool in Hambantota, which was opened by our tour party in 2006. Among other programmes conducted were donating computers to fully equip computer rooms at Baddegama boys’ and girls’ schools, sufficient funds were raised for Delft Island school to construct a sports pavilion, financial assistance and gifts to the residents of the Women’s Development Centre in Kandy – a charity that assists disabled women and children who are victims of violence with a chance for a better life.
In addition a substantial cash donation were presented to Kandy Cancer Home for maintenance and upkeep of the premises. Through the ‘Neluwa Project’, they raised a substantial sum of money in a quest to enrich the lives of people in a village in Southern Sri Lanka.
In the 2018 tour, Morton Cricket financed building materials and upkeep costs for Tispane Hill School in the Nuwara Eliya district. When visiting school, the tour party realised the school oval needed a facelift and turf the oval. Back in Brisbane – Sri Lankan origin Harvey family and Moreton cricket tourists became major sponsors of this project and raised necessary money to facelift the school oval. The completed oval was opened by the 2019 tour party and named it Rosemary Harvey Oval.
In Addition, in every tour, Moreton Cricket carry bags of used but quality cricket equipment to distribute to lesser well-off cricketers they meet on their tours. This year nearly 250 kilos of cricket equipment accompanied the tour party for distribution. This was a small token of a gift from young Brisbane cricketers who realise that one cannot put a price on the look of happiness in the young Sri Lankan recipients of these goods.
This year the main fund-raising efforts helped to raise funds to purchase Propofol vials at the request of the College of Anaesthesiologists and Intensivists of Sri Lanka for distribution to few district hospitals. The tour party raised sufficient funds to purchase over 2500 vials and a formal presentation was made to the College in the presence of His Excellency Paul Stephens, the High Commissioner for Australia in Sri Lanka.