South Australia hosts Aboriginal Cricket Carnival

South Australia will play host to an Aboriginal Cricket Carnival next week from March 11-13.

The SA Aboriginal Cricket Carnival was first held in the late 1980's where 6-8 Aboriginal community teams competed in limited overs cricket at Park 25 in Adelaide. The Carnival ran for 5 consecutive years during the late 80's and early 90's.

The SA Aboriginal Sport and Recreation (SAASRA) facilitated the event to encourage the Aboriginal communities to become involved in the sport.

A need was identified through community consultation to re-instate a number of Carnivals of various sports and link those Sporting Associations and their development programs to the Aboriginal community.

SAASRA in conjunction with the SA Cricket Association (SACA) discussed and supported the concept of the Aboriginal Carnival. This concept was further supported by an initiative of the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) who is currently developing a National Strategy to encourage Aboriginal people into cricket at local, regional, state and national level.

A Super 8's State Team will be chosen from the Carnival to compete at the Imparja Cup to be held at Alice Springs in April 2002. Teams competing in this years Carnival will represent the following communities: