Oasis Magazine - Cairns & Tropical North Queensland Issue 26 - Oct|Nov 2018 | Page 36

BLUEY ’ S FORESIGHT JOHN FORSYTH
There ’ s no denying it - Kevin Maher is Cairns ’ and Far North ’ s Mr Cricket .
He has created a career from his love of the game and is still at the crease today . He has been involved with all aspects of the game , inlcuding playing , captain , coach , and selector at local , State and National levels .
During his long career in cricket , Kevin has see many changes in the game - not just on the field , but at administration levels also .
In Cairns District cricket this coming season , there will be a massive change to the format .
All games will be scheduled as either Twenty20 matches , or one day fixtures for the entire season , removing the two-day match that has been so popular in the past .
Kevin sees it as move to keep up with the times . “ One-day and T20 formats have become so attractive to the public all over the world .”
Kevin feels the move to drop two-day matches is a positive one by Cricket Far North .
After many years of scheduled two dayers being cancelled due to the unpredictability of the far North wet season , the Cairns competition received the fresh approach it was yearning for .
“ The problem was , you ' d get a Saturday of cricket in , and the Sunday would be a wash out , so the match would peter out into a draw and there would be no result .“
“ With shorter format cricket , you ’ re providing the young players with what they want , and you ' re getting a result every week . And it ' s linking into our representative cricket . So it has a lot of pluses ."
Kevin believes it is perfect timing . “ It coincides with the World Cup of T20 cricket played here in Australia in 2020 , which will be huge ".
While he sees the future of the game changing to the faster action , quick results of the shorter forms , Kevin does believe it has taken some skills out of the game .
" Back in my time there were no helmets , very thin pads and no other padding , which made it paramount to watch the ball and read the bowler . You had to develop batting techniques to counter all kinds of bowling ."
“ You learnt to become a good technical player , so the old elements of getting your feet working and watching the ball were incredibly important .”
“ Players today are well padded up , with helmets , and are tending to be a bit more blasé . Now they just stand and talk , so i think that skill factor has gone a little bit .“
Kevin concedes there are some negatives to the changes . “ There is a little bit more travelling involved for the players , but let ’ s hope it all works out this year .”
The Cricket Far North season began successfully with all first round T20 games played on a glorious Cairns mid September weekend .

Be well , Bluey .

KEVIN MAHER : MR CRICKET