Sport
16 April, 2021
Life Membership for Millmerran’s Brett French
After more than 20 years of involvement in Central Downs Cricket Association both as a player and as an administrator, Millmerran’s Mr Brett French was honoured with Life Membership.
After more than 20 years of involvement in Central Downs Cricket Association both as a player and as an administrator, Millmerran’s Mr Brett French was honoured with Life Membership of the association at the recent season Grand Final between Bowenville and Millmerran held in Oakey.
Brett grew up in Millmerran and is no stranger to paperwork or long hours.
As a cricketer, he achieved the top performance awards in CDCA, from Under 18 Player of the Year (2003/04) to three-time CDCA Player of the Year.
French was part of the Millmerran team when they won their last premiership victory in 2009/10 and captained the CDCA rep side in the Mitchell Shield competition that same season. His bowling efforts saw him capture the most wickets in the association in three seasons, and he has a number of centuries to his credit. He was also a valuable wicketkeeper over many seasons.
Serving ten years as Association Secretary (in two five-year stints) Brett balanced his secretarial and administration duties as he continued to play the game which is a challenging commitment for players in any sport.
During his time as secretary significant changes occurred in CDCA competition. These initiatives included the implementation of the MyCricket program for the compilation of statistics in 2011/12, overseeing trophy presentations on Grand Final day (in lieu of an annual banquet night) from 2013 to ensure a significant audience for the celebrations, and overseeing the successful introduction of 40 over matches in CDCA from the 2012/13 season.
More recently he has adapted processes with the implementation of live scoring of games via MyCricket which enables any player or supporter to follow score updates as they happen. In 2020/21 the Association included a T20 round in their competition for the first time, creating more paperwork for the secretary.
In addition to his family and cricketing commitments, Brett’s managerial role with The Raff Group in Millmerran and Pittsworth has also grown exponentially – not a bad effort for a country boy born in the same year as Usman Khawaja and Lady Gaga.
