EIGHT excited RSL Cricket Club youngsters had the chance to soak up the atmosphere of the Boxing Day Test match at the MCG last month.
Escorted to Melbourne by well-known clubman Dwayne Hinton, the juniors were given the opportunity to represent RSL as part of Milo’s In2Cricket on-field demonstration during the fourth Test of the recently completed Ashes series.
Hinton said the group “had a blast”.
“We sat in the crowd for a while then we were picked up by Cricket Victoria, taken to the umpires’ change rooms and allowed on to the ground,” he said.
Hinton said RSL’s participation in the program was confirmed “only a couple of weeks before”.
“We had to get things going pretty quick. We announced it, then after a couple of weeks we went down,” he said.
After endeavouring to “keep the kids calm”, Hinton took them out on to the hallowed turf, where the budding young cricketers participated in “more of a muck around type situation”.
“They were in front of the old Bay 13, so they hit it back to the crowd, we tried to get them involved,” Hinton said.
After the demonstration, which was held in the lunch break of day two, the children did half a lap of honour, receiving high fives from the crowd, Hinton said.
He said it was the first experience of watching cricket live at the elite level for the group — Seth Linford, Cooper Beasley, Bailey Jones, Mitch Hinton, Connor Frazzica, Tony Massara, Cooper McDougall and Jett Hinton.
Jett had the further thrill of appearing on the Cricket Show, hosted by ex-Test stars Michael Slater and Brett Lee.
