Greek Australian cricketers head to Corfu in September for Corfu’s first Cricket Festival.
Cricket is not a sport one readily associates with Greece, but it is on a good wicket on Corfu, where it’s been played since 1823.
And this September, the newly-formed Australian Hellenic Cricket Council (AHCF) will be stepping up to the crease in Corfu’s first Cricket Festival.
AHCF president Nick Hatzoglou said the inaugural 15-day tour, in partnership with the AFL Multicultural Program, was designed to promote traditional Australian sports in Greece.
He said sports such as cricket and AFL football have long given new arrivals in Australia an opportunity to integrate into a multicultural society.
“Ironically, today we will begin a voyage which will see these sports provide an opportunity for children of the Diaspora to explore the cultural essence of the land of their forefathers,” he said.
Hatzoglou said the tour was on a good wicket with Greek foreign ministry, who have arranged civic receptions for the team with the mayors of Athens, Thessaloniki and Corfu, and a possible audience with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou.
Kane Liossis is on the under-18 touring team which, along with the senior side, is independently selected of the best Greek Australian players.
The 17 year old Greek Australian cricket fanatic said although he does speak some Greek, he’s never been to Greece.
“I don’t think 15 days is enough,” he said.
“I want to stay and explore, and see family.”
The Australian Hellenic Cricket Foundation was formed this year to enhance cultural ties, promote cricket talent, and build relationships with the Greek Diaspora, in particular the Hellenic Cricket Foundation in Corfu.
Sports Without Borders Executive Chair, James Dimitriou, who will also be on the trip, said it was also a good opportunity to promote AFL to the Greek press.
He said they’d be discussing the possibility of including a 30-player Greek team in the AFL International Series, which will be held across Melbourne, Sydney and the Gold Coast in August 2011.
The tour, which leaves Melbourne on September 7, will be chaperoned by cricket-enthusiast Greek Australians, including ‘Macca’, or Mithridates, and ‘Dazza’, or Demosthenes.
‘Dazza,’ also known as Phillip Evangelides, said he didn’t speak any English when he started school in Australia, but he had never been to Greece until he was 46 years old.
He said the trip was important “for our kids to have ‘filias’ – friendship – with our mother country.”
“We’re using sport to get our kids – Greek kids, Aussie kids – to have a holiday in Greece, but with sport as a reason for that,” he said.
Comedian George Kapiniaris, who was at the launch of the tour, said it was important to teach Greek Australian children about Greece’s long history.
“And then Jesus said, ‘don’t do anything till I get back,’ and we didn’t, and that’s why we’re in financial ruin,” Kapiniaris joked.
He said he grew up watching cricket with his dad, who would always tell him: “That Dennis Lilly is a Greek bloke.”
(source: neos kosmos)
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