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The International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup Trophy Tour manager believes today's World Cup showing is a once in a lifetime opportunity for cricket fans in Dubbo.
The trophy tour rolls into Dubbo with a huge amount of activities planned at the Lady Cutler Ovals with former Australian cricketers Andy Bichel and Jimmy Maher in attendance and the ICC's Tim Whittaker admits the anticipation is building despite the World Cup not starting until February of next year.
"It's terrific, a lot of the kids we've seen weren't even alive when the World Cup was last played here so it's a once in a generation thing, everyone can get up nice and close with the Cup and touch it and have a photo taken with it and sent to them immediately," he said.
"We had 500 students turn out at Broken Hill and that was massive for us, there was cricket fans big and little and it's a special experience, the World Cup hasn't been played in Australia in 23 years so were really happy it's back here and hoping for a big turn out in Dubbo."
The World Cup Trophy Tour will today be held in conjunction with the NSW Government's Home Ground Your campaign, meaning local fans get even more access to cricket content.
The Home Ground Tour will have a travelling cricket museum and also a unique video truck while the trophy tour will be plenty of cricket-based activities and competitions as well as the trophy itself.
Another highlight will be the presence of Bichel and Maher, both who represented Australia at the 2003 World Cup in South Africa.
Bichel played 67 tests for Australia as well as 67 one-day internationals (ODIs) while Maher played 26 ODIs for his country and Whittaker said it's great to have big name players join the tour.
"They're really excited to come out and meet and greet everyone here, they were both a big part of the 2003 World Cup winning side and I know Andy has a lot of funny stories to tell, we'll have a bit of a Q&A with him up on stage," he said.
The tour and cricket extravaganza at Lady Cutler will provide a real joyful and carnival atmosphere following one of the most tragic weeks the sport has endured.
The passing of Phillip Hughes shocked not only the national sporting community but people all over the world and Whittaker admitted it will be great to put smiles on cricketer's faces.
"That's one of the reasons we continued forward with this tour, we know Phil would want us to, the whole cricket community has been in mourning but this game unites people and we'll have a bit of a tribute video we'll play up on stage a couple of times too."
The ICC World Cup Trophy Tour and Home Ground Tour will begin at 10.30am today at Lady Cutler while at 3.30pm there will be a local versus legends match.
