SSD 2011 a Big Hit
Former international Andy Bichel’s massive six with one ball to spare clinched victory for the Town XI over the Gown XI in the University of Wollongong’s annual Stumping Serious Diseases fund-raising cricket match on October 15, but the ultimate winners will be the children of the Illawarra.
Proceeds from the celebrity Twenty20 match and dinner will support moves by UOW’s Graduate School of Medicine and the Illawarra-Shoalhaven Local Health District to establish a new position of Professor of Paediatrics for the region.
UOW Vice-Chancellor Professor Gerard Sutton said an international search could now start to find a suitable person for the position. He said the eventual appointment of a Professor of Paediatrics would be a “huge step forward for the region” as it would mean that more gravely ill children could be treated in the Illawarra rather than having to travel to Sydney for treatment.
“That (sending children to Sydney) wouldn’t be required if we had the appropriate equipment and skills base here in the Illawarra,” Professor Sutton said. He said long-serving Illawarra paediatric specialist Dr Alan James had done a great job for the region for many years, and that appointing a Professor of Paediatrics would “take things to the next level”.
UOW started the annual cricket event in 2009 to raise funds for the University’s health and medical research programs, and it has become one of the University’s signature events.
Some of the greatest names in international cricket over the last two decades took part in this year’s game on October 15. Four players who have captained their country - Australian Adam Gilchrist, New Zealander Martin Crowe, West Indian Carl Hooper and England’s Adam Hollioake – were joined by fellow internationals Darren Lehmann, Stuart Clark, Merv Hughes, Andy Bichel, Wayne Holdsworth, South African star Herschelle Gibbs and Australian female representative Alyssa Healy.
Celebrities from sport, music and show business, including dual international footballer Wendell Sailor, former state cricketer and TV commentator James Brayshaw, former Australian hockey captain Nikki Hudson, ironwoman Hayley Bateup, rugby league internationals Steve Mortimer and Jim Dymock, actor Justin Melvey, rock musician Mark Callaghan, former Wiggle Greg Page and radio personality Gus Worland, also took part.
Gilchrist, who has had an ambassador’s role for UOW in India since 2008, captained the Gown XI while Sailor led the Town X1. And while the emphasis was on entertainment, sublime batting displays by Hooper (87), Gibbs (84), Lehmann (51) and Crowe (50) kept cricket aficionados in the large crowd enthralled.
Heavy rain drenched the University Oval overnight, but Touchdown Helicopters sent one of its choppers to hover over the field and help dry it enough for play to start virtually on schedule.
Gilchrist opened the batting for his team with Prashant Kumar Gili, representing coal company NRE which successfully bid to have a player in the side at last year’s Stumping Serious Diseases dinner. Gilchrist hit a quickfire 20 and Giri 13, before Gibbs and Lehmann figured in a big partnership to take the Gown XI to 5-199 at the end of their 20 overs.
It was a great effort considering the slow, rain-affected outfield. But it wasn’t enough, with the Town XI overhauling the total when Bichel hit his six with one ball to spare, to take his team to 5-204.
Hooper was the stand-out batsman, the 49-year-old showing all the skills that made him a force in international cricket for 21 years, belting four sixes in his match-winning innings.
Professor Sutton said the game was a great event for the University and for the city, and thanked Gilchrist for using his influence to attract so many great cricketers to the event. “It’s down to Adam that we have had some of the finest cricketers in the world here in Wollongong,” Professor Sutton said, joking that the former Australian wicket-keeper had also got rid of the rain.
“The skies cleared as soon as Adam came on the campus at 10 to 11,” he said. “Is there nothing this man can’t do!”
After the game, the players and around 450 guests attended a gala fund-raising dinner at the University Hall, where Pro Vice-Chancellor (Health) Professor Don Iverson outlined the plan for the appointment Professor of Paediatrics in partnership with the Illawarra-Shoalhaven Local Health District, with support from Clubs NSW (Illawarra and Shoalhaven Division).
“We are now ready to take the important first of advertising nationally and internationally for the Professor of Paediatrics position,” Professor Iverson said. “The journey to identify the best candidate could take upwards of a year but this will be time well spent given the critical importance of this position to the future of paediatrics in the region.”
Check out all the action in the 2011 Galleries.
Report: Nick Hartgerink.
