Scheduling woes kill off annual Lilac Hill cricket festival

[blueandblack]

So long a staple fixture of the WA cricket season, the annual Lilac Hill Festival will no longer take place in the future.

Seen as a curtain raiser to the summer Test series in Australia, the iconic game pitted a Chairman's XI selection against the touring team.

But the "reluctance" of visiting teams to include the fixture as part of their schedule, plus demanding schedules for the Warriors and the WA Futures League team, have forced the WA Cricket Association and the Lilac Hill Festival Match Committee to cancel the fixture.

It was hoped that a one-off Lilac Hill Festival Match would be held this year to celebrate another Ashes summer in Australia, as well as marking the 20-year anniversary of the inaugural game.

WACA chief executive Graeme Wood said the association was hoping to stage the game for one last time later this year.

"... But unfortunately it was not to be," he said.

"When we decided 12 months ago to postpone the event for 2009, we stated just how much the cricket landscape has changed in two decades and the greater demands on international and interstate scheduling.

"The constraints continue to provide us with great challenges and it has unfortunately resulted in this wonderful event coming to an end.

"Not only did all eyes turn to Perth as teams started their tours of Australia in the Swan Valley, the players and support staff of those sides were able to enjoy the finest in Western Australian hospitality."

The list of highlights was extensive, but one that transcended the others was the 10th Anniversary of the Lilac Hill Festival Match in 1999, when Dennis Lillee played his final match for the Chairman's XI alongside his son, Adam.

Lillee was just one of many world-class players who came out of retirement to play at Lilac Hill, with the likes of Sir Richard Hadlee, Graeme Pollock, Barry Richards, Michael Holding, Allan Border, Jeff Thomson and Greg Chappell turning out for the Chairman's XI over the years.

The Chairman's XI won seven of the 18 matches they played against touring nations, with 10 losses and one no result.

The festival match began in October 1990 after the then-named Australian Cricket Board approved a suggestion from the late Barry Shepherd, an ACB Director from the Western Australian Cricket Association, who said Australia should develop a "tour opener" similar to the traditional Arundel Castle match, which kicks off the playing schedule for touring cricket teams in Great Britain.

http://www.watoday.com.au/sport/cric...0702-zsvl.html

[eleypinkbit]

Nooooo, that was the best day of cricket! Still remember Monty playing there before the last Aussie Ashes series, when no one knew who he was!

[WF1964]

Who's Monty ---

[jargan83]

Was bound to happen eventually

The International calander isn't getting any thinner and with the 1st test each year in Brisbane

Shame though as it was always a good day and a good fundraiser for local cricket

Monty Panesar took 5 wicket on debut against Australia then went back to obscurity and mediocrity