The city of Melton is experiencing a rapid population growth with many multicultural and young families moving to the area. This reflects in our current membership base, with approximately 270 of our participants coming from an ethnic background, and we also have several indigenous players at our Club. We are currently providing access to cricket for some 225 youngsters. It is important for us to be able to provide all of our members with appropriate cricket facilities at an affordable cost so that they can further their sporting endeavours.

We are a developing and culturally diverse community Club, established in 2008, and have seen a rapid increase in participation numbers. We have 4 practice nets and a new large clubroom with excellent kitchen facilities. The installation of turf wickets at our #2 oval has been identified as an important priority in our recently updated Strategic Plan. Our teams currently participate in the North West Cricket Association which is an all synthetic pitches competition, and we would like to join a turf wicket competition to provide our participants the opportunity to gain experience on turf wickets and hopefully progress their cricketing career, as all higher grade cricket is played on turf wickets. We are proposing to join the Victorian Turf Cricket Association and have received an endorsement from the Board of Management regarding our expression of interest for Senior Men, Senior Women and U18 teams to join their competition. This grade of cricket will enhance our members' experience with a higher grade of cricket and can only be a major benefit for them to progress their cricketing careers. This project will have a positive impact for all of our current members (in excess of 330) as well as prospective participants. On joining the Victorian Turf Cricket Association, many of the V.T.C.A. clubs will also benefit from these excellent cricket pitch facilities.

We understand the importance of providing our cricket community with appropriate facilities to participate in cricket, and for us to attract new members to our Club. Many of our multicultural members are from cricket loving countries such as India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, and with the construction of turf wickets there is the real possibility that their family and friends will become involved in our Club, thereby increasing participation. The additional benefit of turf wickets is that junior and female participants can obtain experience playing on a surface which will provide a pathway to higher standard competition cricket. This will provide an incentive for more juniors and females to start playing cricket with us and thus build on our membership base. It is difficult to estimate an increase in participation numbers, but given the range of community multicultural groups within the Melton region we would expect a relatively large increase in the participation rate.