Sideline Sid Sports correspondent & historian www.sunlive.co.nz

The furthest thing from the mind of local sports fans as winter starts to take a grip is the game of cricket.

While the Bay Oval will again host a myriad of top-level cricket next summer, there is a lot of water to go under the bridge with the Baywide rugby titles and the mighty Bay of Steamers campaign set to take centre stage, before we get to the new cricket season.

However, there is a small group of local cricket players who make an annual migration to hone their cricket skills during the New Zealand winter.

In the decades since Western Bay players such as Mike Wright and John Gilbert decamped to play cricket in England, there has been a considerable number of local players get on the big bird to the other side of the world.

Bay of Plenty and Greerton opening batsman Tom MacRury has broken from the tradition of journeying to the Northern Hemisphere, to take his attacking style of batting to the top end of Australia to play in Darwin.

MacRury blasted the highest score of the NT A Grade competition this season, smashing his way to 160 off a neat one hundred balls during May.

A massive 13 sixes accompanied by 12 fours - led Waratah to a six wicket victory against Palmerston who had set their opponents a target of 265 to win.

Since the start of the millennium, Darwin has become established as the place to go to play cricket in the Australian winter.

The cricket season runs from April to September and is played on hard and fast tracks, which reward aggressive batting and test bowling attacks.

Northern Territory Cricket was only established in 1978 and covers a huge geographical expanse in the far north of the Australian continent.

Regular competition cricket is played in Darwin and districts - Alice Springs Tennant Creek and Katherine during the Australian winter.

After seven rounds of the 2018 Darwin A Grade competition, MacRury sits at the top of the batting stakes with 252 runs, ahead of such notable cricketers as Jake Doran and kiwi first class player Bradley Schmulian.

Twenty-one-year-old Doran who has played for New South Wales, Tasmania and Australia Under 19, holds the honour of being the youngest player signed for the Big Bash, when he inked a contract with the Sydney Thunder in late 2014.

South African born Schmulian has played first class cricket for Central Districts with a double century to his name.

MacRury is right in the frame to earn a place in the four team NT Winter T20 Strike League in July, where a number of the best Pro T20 players in Australia play with the pick of the NT amateur players, in front of the Big Bash selectors.

There is likely to be unprecedented attention given to the 2018 edition of the NT Twenty 20 competition, where Australian players David Warner and Cameron Bancroft who are chasing cricket redemption, have signed to play in the Northern Territory Cricket main attraction.