By Elizabeth Kovacs

After vigorous training in the basement of a sporting club in Kaleen, 10 young men hit stardom when they brought home a win for Australia in indoor cricket. Next year, they’re going for win number two. 

Following their recent success at the 2024 Indoor Cricket Club Series World Cup in Sri Lanka, 23-year-old Aidan Gunning and fellow teammate 24-year-old Connor Brown have big plans for the upcoming competition in Dubai. 

“We are growing as a club, so this time, we are going to send two teams to play in each of the divisions,” says Aidan.

“It’ll be really good to give another 10 the opportunity to go and play at that level.”

The winning team – the Kaleen Gators – is looking to split themselves up, allowing them to enter one team into the lower division.

“We’re gonna split our success amongst those two teams. And yeah, hopefully come back with two trophies,” Aidan says. 

The winning team, aged between 20-40 years, are hoping to hit the 22-26 age range for their future team. 

“After the Junior ACT Under 22s is finished, if you’re not good enough to make the Rockets, you don’t really have anywhere to go,” Aidan says. 

“This year, a big focus of ours has been to sort out that 22-25 age bracket and keep those guys in and around the sport.”

The team itself formed recently to fill a gap in the cricket world.

“Indoor Cricket Canberra used to be a Super League competition, which folded,” Aidan says.

“There hasn’t been a Super League for a couple of years.

“If you weren’t playing in the Premier League, you didn’t have any national squads. You didn’t have anywhere to play.”

According to Aidan, it was a blessing in disguise when U-Pro and the United Arab Emirates noticed this gap and created the Club World Series Competition. 

“We decided it was the perfect opportunity to go play some high-level indoor cricket,” says Aidan. “And, yeah, have a good time.”

For Connor, this was more than just a chance to play cricket at a higher level, it was an opportunity to go on the adventure of a lifetime with his mates. 

“We all play high-level cricket around the outdoor competitions so we thought ‘yeah, we might qualify for this comp’, so we chucked in 10 blokes,” he says. 

Feeling confident in their ability to at least qualify, the boys never thought they’d end up taking the win.

“We thought, generally Australia is pretty good at indoor cricket compared to the rest of the world, so we thought we’d hold our own,” says Aidan.

“But I don’t think we went over there with the intention that we were going to win.”

The competition wasn’t without its struggles with the boys paying for their trip primarily out of their own pockets. 

“Although most of the tournament is paid out of pocket, we’ve worked really closely with a lot of our sponsors to help get us there,” Aidan says. 

“Tradie has been absolutely fantastic to help get us there and Brighter Futures Electrical.”

With their sights set on Dubai, the team is now looking at getting local businesses to support the venture. 

“I’d love to get local companies around it, too, if they’re interested in that sort of thing,” says Connor.

For the boys, their sponsors couldn’t have been given to a more grateful bunch. 

“We wouldn’t have been able to get there without them,” says Aidan.

Now, with double the aspirations, the team is looking forward to sharing their love of cricket with 10 more players. Connor urges anyone to give it a go. 

“Just give it a crack,” he says.

“You make a lot of friends out of it, and it teaches you a few life skills.”

Anyone interested should watch the Indoor Cricket Canberra social media platforms for opportunities and updates.