All not well in the land of Dungog Doug

Australia loves little more than celebrating the authenticity of its Bush cricketers who rose from humble beginnings to achieve greatness on the international stage.

But while Australia co-hosts the World Cup, one news story that will go largely overlooked is a warning that all is not well for cricket in more isolated parts.

Dungog Shire, a hilly agricultural and tourism area in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, 75kms north of Newcastle, is famous for producing Australian cricketers of the calibre of Arthur Morris and Doug Walters.

'Dungog Doug' was the son of a dairy farming family and began by playing cricket on the verandah and later on a pitch rolled out of ant beds. But such is the lack of enthusiasm for cricket in this region - in which a sparse population of 8,000 is spread over 2,200 sq kms - that Dungog junior cricket is now on the verge of being disbanded.

The Dungog Chronicle has reported that the lack of interest at a recent annual meeting has led the Dungog Junior Cricket Club committee to abandon all hope and discontinue the sport.

At a time when the World Cup is in Australia, and the Big Bash League is taking the country by storm, not all is necessarily as well as it first appears.