The Leichhardt Wanderers Cricket Club were lucky enough to be selected as one of three NSW cricket club recipients of the Belong Bash Fund. Belong are major sponsors of the Sydney Sixers BBL franchise for the 2024-25 season. The other two recipient clubs were Thornleigh Cricket Club and Nana Glen Cricket Club (based in Coffs Harbour).
Read on below for details of this exciting experience for our club!
The concept of the fund itself was that for every boundary (four or six) hit by a Sydney Sixers player over both the WBBL and BBL seasons, $100 was donated to the fund, to be split evenly across the three clubs at the end of the season.
So.... how did the Sixers do? Well, across both the women's and men's BBL competitions, 339 boundaries were scored! This means the fund ended up with a whopping $33,900, of which LWCC will be the very fortunate recipients of one-third, i.e. $11,300! The presentation of the cheque by Belong (see the photograph below) was covered by 7News, which aired across several of their news programs on 4th February - great exposure for our club.

Additionally, you will likely have noticed the image on the front page of our official website, featuring a number of our junior players with some Sydney Sixers stars, including Ellyse Perry, Todd Murphy, Maitlan Brown, Josh Phillippe, Kate Pelle & Jack Edwards. LWCC was even luckier to be selected to feature in the marketing campaign for Belong, the Sixers and the Bash Fund. The distinctive red and black uniforms of the Wanderers has featured - with our juniors - in television commercials on Foxtel, Kayo Sports and the SCG home games over the course of the season. You can see an example: here.
This wasn't the only media experience our juniors were part of. On 13th January, a number of our younger players participated in a Sydney Sixers event at the SCG. After watching the Sixers men train for a session, the kids were lucky enough to have a skills session of their own on the SCG turf, with Steve Smith, Moises Henriques & Sean Abbott! All the kids had a memorable time - and the parents got a thrill out of it too!
Our very own Dan Moore (coach of U11 Girls) was also interviewed in relation to the Belong Bash Fund and featured in The Daily Telegraph and did a wonderful job of promoting our club and this wonderful opportunity!
See some photos of our LWCC juniors from the event!


Finally, what will this money be used for?
Whilst the specifics are not yet determined, the intention is for all of this money to go back into the development of our club, whether it's for player development through skill development, coaching or workshops, our coaches (and other volunteers) to develop their coaching and team/player management skills, or our facilities (equipment, uniforms, even our practice spaces such as cricket nets).
The whole intention is to ensure the money being donated by Belong goes to ensuring that our club continues to thrive and our junior cricketers can continue to enjoy their cricket, the sport remains fun and engaging, and they can all develop their skills for the future, whether they go on to play professionally or just enjoy the game. As we firm up specifics, we will ensure this is communicated clearly to all members of the club.
This experience has been wonderful for our club, not only as recipients of the donation but also in terms of media exposure and continuing to build the storied brand that is the Leichhardt Wanderers.
We would like to express our gratitude to Belong, the Sydney Sixers and Cricket NSW for our inclusion in this initiative.



