Busselton secures national cricket competition

THE Busselton-Margaret River region has been awarded hosting rights to a major national cricket tournament next summer.

For the first time in their 40-year history, the Australian Country Cricket Championships will be held in this region of WA.

The announcement of the prestigious championships coming to Busselton-Margaret River in January 2026 was made this week by Cricket Australia.

The annual tournament sees the best cricketers from country regions compete for the States and Territories for the right to be crowned Australian Country Cricket Champions.

The States take it in turn to host the annual tournament. Previous tournaments have been held in Bunbury, Albany and Geraldton, but never Busselton-Margaret River.

“We have known about the decision for a while but have had to keep the announcement under wraps until now,” said Busselton-Margaret River Cricket Association president James Gannaway.

“It’s a great honour to be chosen by Cricket Australia to host this significant event. We hope to be able to use the championships to improve our facilities for the benefit of local cricketers into the future.

“We plan to make Barnard Park in Busselton the centrepiece of the tournament, and to have turf grounds in other centres such as Dunsborough, Cowaramup and Margaret River also hosting games in the championships.”

As part of the tournament directive from Cricket Australia, Gannaway said all venues were required to provide pitch covers, sightscreens, canteen facilities, changerooms and scoreboards.

“We already have the pitch covers, canteen facilities and changerooms,” he said.

“We will see if we can examine some of the funding given to us by our major donors such as Ron Bell and the late Jim House to purchase sight screens and possibly electronic scoreboards which are compatible with our scoring platform, Play HQ.

“This investment would not be a one-time use, as we intend to participate in the WA Country Cup, host Masters Over-55s tournament at our venues and utilise the scoreboards for regular game days. Additionally, we can seek sponsorships for the back of the sight screens, creating more advertising opportunities.”

All games will be live-streamed nationwide on Frog Box.

The announcement will have a significant impact on local cricket competition in Busselton-Margaret River next season, as the use of the major turf grounds for the national championships will mean that the grounds are not available for regular home-and-away fixtures for a number of weeks in mid-season.

“In order to make room for the country championships, the BMRCA committee decided that next season we would not hold our T20 competition, which is usually held in December or January,” Gannaway said.

“We feel that the sacrifice will be more than worth it, for the benefit that the national championships are expected to provide locally.”