Dubai: Australia’s clean sweep of the top four titles in the World Indoor Cricket Federation (WICF) World Cup wasn’t a surprise as they are considered the invincibles in this version of the game.

Speaking to Gulf News, Sarah Harris, the Event Manager of the World Cup and Development Officer of Cricket Australia, who has kept a keen eye on processes that have helped churn out victorious Australian teams said: “Australia’s domination is due to the pathway structure that is in place in Australia. Both men and women get to compete in really strong competitions and that helps them hold strong when it comes to big matches and help them win big games.”

When asked whether an intense talent hunt is what keeps throwing up world-class indoor cricket talent in Australia, Sarah replied: “There is no talent hunt as such because they do a lot of work in each of their own programmes to make sure that all the pathway players come through and train and work hard to produce the best results from each match they play. So there is no need for a talent hunt.”

Sarah then went on to reveal that coaches for indoor cricket also play a big role. “All the coaches in Australia have been in and round the game for a number of years. It is not the coaches alone but also the officials are those who have been in and around the game for a very long time.”

Sarah also revealed that access to indoor cricket centres has also helped in popularising indoor cricket. “Australia has a lot of centres for indoor and that makes it easy for people to access different centres.”

To a query on what the UAE could do to raise the standard of their teams and make a mark in indoor cricket, Sarah said: “UAE is in a fantastic position as they have got players playing indoor cricket regularly in Dubai. They need to keep working to develop a good pathway structure and that will see them become bigger and better in three years.”

Greg Donnelly, the president of the World Indoor Cricket Federation hailed Dubai for successful staging the Indoor Cricket World Cup. He even said that by staging the showpiece here, the future of indoor cricket now looks brighter.

“The World Cup was brought here to Dubai on the back of WICF discussions some two years ago, and it was a strategic move on our behalf to bring it here, hoping to attract the attention of the ICC. The media response has been astounding, better than we could have expected. The meetings we were hoping to have with the ICC have been facilitated and the future is looking very positive.”

Australian women’s coach, Donna Dalby, who coached Australia to a fourth World Cup title, revealed the main factor behind why Australia remain on top: “Each year we are trying to get a little better and be clinical about our performance; we talk about process rather than outcome, if you do all the little things right, the scoreboard takes care of itself.”

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