NT Cricket CEO Gavin Dovey says it’s disappointing the National Indigenous Cricket Championships, which has been held in Alice Springs for the last eight years is being moved to Mackay in Queensland, where the government is heavily investing in infrastructure

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And we know that the National Indigenous Cricket Championships is
no longer going to be held in the Northern Territory
next year, following Cricket Australia's move to place it into
state or to move it into state. Now we are
going to be catching up with Gavandovi, but for some
reason that phone line has just dropped out, so we're
going to be speaking in just a moment two NT

(00:20):
Cricket Chief Executive Gavandovey to find out a little bit
more about this situation. But my understanding is that the
championship has been based in Alice Springs for the past
eight years. However, Cricket Australia announced yesterday that they're going
to move it to mckaye and Queensland. So the move
means that the Championships are going to be held at

(00:41):
the Great Barrier Reef Arena and that's happening in Mackay
now from the second to the seventh of April next year.
And that decision follows discussions with state and territory governments
about how the opportunity to secure and host Cricket Australia
events and national tournaments over the next seven seasons and

(01:01):
how that is sort of all going to work. So
it's definitely a loss, there is no other way to
put it. And I don't know exactly how many people
head to Alice Springs for that event every year. But
as we were talking about her, as I was talking
about just a short time ago, we know that having
sport in different locations and particularly regional parts of Australia,

(01:23):
regional parts of the Northern Territory is it's such a
great thing, you know, for so many reasons. Now someone's
message through and said, Katie, can you ask why Channel
seven doesn't show all the big bash matches. Well, I'm
not one hundred percent sure why that is, but I'll
see what I can find out. And joining me on
the line right now it is Gavin Dovey from NT Cricket,

(01:45):
the Chief executive.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Good morning, Gave, Good morning Katie.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
How are you, yeah, really well, thank you for your
time this morning. Now mate, A bit of bad news
with the Indigenous Cricket Championships no longer being held in
the Northern Territory next year.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yeah, Cricket Australia made that announcement yesterday, so yeah, disappointed
obviously to see that finally announced. We've known for a
little while, but it's going to go somewhere else. And yeah,
we got told about a week ago that it was
going to Makay next April.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
Do you have any reasons, like, what's the reason that
they've given.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
Well, there's a few things. I think. We've obviously had
the hosting rights for the event for eight years and
that's been fantastic, and you know, we think Our Springs
is the spiritual home of indigenous cricket, so we would
have liked to have seen it stay in Central Australia,
but there's been some challenges with the event, and I

(02:42):
think the landscape shifted now where Cricket Australia is taking
all of its content and it's going around to stay
in territory governments and it's effectively asking everyone to increase
their investment in order to sort of acquire the rights.
So this event's grown in profile over the past eight years.
It's a lot of interest in it, so I'm sort

(03:03):
of not surprised to see that there was a number
of parties queuing out to try and obtain it.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
Yeah, and I guess we see that very often in
various different sports, you know, they sort of look, I'll
say it not you, but I suppose it's sometimes a
matter of kind of going out to the highest bidder
and seeing what, you know, just what kind of bang
for your buck you can get, I suppose what kind
of exposure you can get depending on where you hold
a different event.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Yeah, I mean the spot on. I mean, that's the
cut and dry that these events offer a number of
different benefits to members of your community and you in
your region. And so we're saying, particularly with the Queens
and government, you know, they've been really aggressive in getting
out there and wanting to get championships like the nic

(03:51):
C into their backyard, and so from that perspective, obviously
we're disappointed. I guess from an indigenous cricket perspective, if
you look the bigger picture, it's fantastic to see the
interesting you know, around the country and wanting to host it.
And alongside that, you know, there's a feedback from male
and female Indigenous players saying, you know, they want the

(04:13):
opportunity to connect with different Indigenous communities around the country.
So you know, I guess we've got to respect that
as well.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
Devin, the situation with crime in Alice springs. Did that
have anything to do with us.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
I don't know if it's specifically connected to crime, but
you know, clearly I think there's challenges we're hosting events
in central Australia. I don't think it's isolated to cricket.
You know, hosting events in central Austate is expensive, you know, travel,
accommodation costs. You know you're playing in February and the desert.

(04:47):
I don't think necessarily the infrastructure in Alice, from a
sporting perspective, at that next level, is necessarily kept pace
with other parts of the country. I mean where it's
going to Makai a great barrier Forarenas, an incredible facility.
That's just an ounce that's got twenty five million dollars
of funding from Queensland Government for the next stage of

(05:09):
its development. So I mean it's going to turn into
an absolutely elite cricket facility. So I think there's a
number of those things that have effectively conspired against it.
It's staying in ours unfortunately.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
Look, I know tomorrow we are actually going to be
talking a little bit more about the strategic sort of
planning I suppose at Marara, and that's something that the
Northern Territory government's having a bit of a closer look
into and I sort of asked the same question of
Jason Butcher from Anti Hockey a little bit earlier this morning.
When you look at the long term plan when it

(05:43):
comes to sport infrastructure there at Marara for cricke ash,
do we need a greater investment?

Speaker 2 (05:53):
I think we do. Yeah, absolutely. I mean I think
we've been fortunate to enjoy some good support in recent
years to start that process. I think it's just a
matter of the scale and level level at which you
can develop those facilities. And like I just mentioned a
regional town in North Queensland that's probably similar to Daren

(06:15):
in lots of different ways, is attracting tens of millions
of dollars of investment, and so I think that's the
critical thing is I think there's a big jump to
be made within the territory if we're going to be
able to acquire that top level of content and championships
of this scale. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
Well, and then I guess when you look at that
even further, stepping away from Marara and looking back at
Alice Springs and sort of going well, then if we
want to be able to host massive tournaments and you know,
fantastic events like the one that we were holding. Obviously
they're in Alice Springs. We've got to make sure the

(06:53):
infrastructure is up to speed too.

Speaker 2 (06:56):
Absolutely. You know, we've started that, as I said, that
process we put in dropping wickets back into Terrot Stadium.
You know, we think it's really important that that facility
is a multi sports facility that benefits multiple sports. So
you know, we've worked really hard to mount a case
that we want in the national cricket back at TA Stadium.

(07:17):
And this content's really valuable. You know, cricket's the second
biggest sport in the world. It's back in the Olympics.
There's billions of people around the world that follow it.
But if we're going to acquire a content at that
top level, you know, we need facilities that have side screens,
you know, have seeding, have the types of amenities that
some of these other places around the country have, being

(07:37):
able to provide teams or participants with spectators. So, you know,
I think it's a really important conversation because we know
obviously how passionate Territorians are about this sport and the
infrastructure is a critical part of hosting major events.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
Gave very quick question before I let you go. Someone's
just texting and said, can you ask why Channel seven
doesn't show all the big Bash matches? Do you know?

Speaker 2 (08:01):
I think, yeah, well, just the commercial realities of sport
these days. There's a certain amount of content that's on
free to wear, and then there's a certain amount that's
behind the paywall. So I could be fine with cricket,
rugby league, and yet well, fortunately, yeah, more and more
of it's going on to different platforms where you got
to sort of get your wallet out. Unfortunately.

Speaker 1 (08:21):
Oh mate, you should have seen me trying to watch
the QRL GRAM final while I was in New Zealand
and you can't even watch, like, even if you've got
a KO subscription, you can't even watch the footy. So
so yeah, there is definitely everybody's you know, everybody's sort
of got their rights, and particularly with various sports. We
know that different sports will be shown on different different

(08:44):
platforms and they're making their money out of it. That's
fair enough, I suppose, that's right. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:49):
I mean the good thing is that that money gets
reinvested back into the sport in different ways. Yeah, that's yeah.
I don't know where. That's the answer your listener wanted
to hear. That's what it is.

Speaker 1 (09:00):
Well, Gavin Dovey, always good to catch up with you
really appreciate your time this morning, and no doubt we'll
talk to you again soon.

Speaker 2 (09:07):
Thanks for the opportunity.

Speaker 1 (09:08):
Thank you,