Cricket is an institution in Australia, with hundreds of thousands of people attending matches this season all over the country as the visiting South African, Sri Lankan and West Indian teams do battle with the Aussies. This is why Cisco Australia is so excited to have partnered with the Primary Club to sponsor "Marathon Cricket". The epic fundraiser event saw 520 players and umpires participate in 30 hours of cricket at the famous Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG), commencing at 7am and running through to 10pm on Thursday 24th and Friday 25th of January.

Primary Club's aim is to raise money for disabled sports charities and the latest Marathon Cricket raised upwards of$100,000 for its charities. One of this year's major beneficiaries is the Sargood Centre at Collaroy; the residential learning centre for people recovering from spinal cord injuries. Sargood also entered a team in the Marathon Cricket event, captained by former Australian Rugby Union coach, Rod Macqueen.

Marathon Cricket has achieved a great number of 'firsts' in its short history. It was the setting for the world's first all-indigenous cricket match on an international cricket ground. Marathon Cricket also played host to the first Blind Cricket match at the SCG, as well as the first Special Olympics Cricket match at the same venue.

Cisco Australia Territory Manager, Jim Winchester, is a founder of this unique event and, supported by an army of over 70 volunteers, is responsible for ensuring the smooth running of this worthy spectacle each year.

Cisco's partners also got involved in the action with Ingram Micro, Westcon and Express Data joining forces with Cisco's Distribution Team, whilst IMC, Comscentre, Telstra Business, Data#3, Alphawest and Dimension Data joined Cisco's Partner-Led Team. Logicalis and AstronTech also entered teams while Telstra entered two teams.

Aside from the cricket, the event also included a dinner, attended by 300-400 people. The dinner was hosted by Richie Benaud OBE, the face and voice of cricket in Australia.

Congratulations to Cisco's Jim Winchester, all corporate partners of the event and of course all volunteers for making this an amazing event. To view images of the event, follow this link http://www.marathoncricket.com/?p=419.