The Melbourne All Abilities Association (MAACA) was created to give people with intellectual disabilities a chance to play cricket.
The idea of a cricket program for all abilities started in the early 2000s. A small group of cricket clubs in southeast Melbourne made a semi-formal competition for players with intellectual disabilities. The games and rules were changed so that all players could play, no matter their disability. This way, more players could join in, with the main goal being “Inclusion for All.”
Over the next ten years, this new cricket program became so popular across Melbourne that a more formal cricket association was needed.
In 2015, with help from Cricket Victoria, the first formal All Abilities cricket association in Australia (MAACA) was started. Since then, MAACA has grown to include 16 clubs (24 teams) and over 300 players across Greater Melbourne, Geelong, Ballarat, and Bendigo… and it’s still growing!
MAACA has three divisions. Division 1 and Division 2 are for high performance, and Division 3 is for beginners. The key to MAACA’s success is that each division focuses on including everyone and giving every player a chance to play cricket.