While most of Canberra City Cricket Club’s players are ‘fined’ for on-field offences – dropping a catch, forgetting your whites – one batsman was targeted for an off-field offence: a bare ring finger on his long-term partner’s left hand.
For every match Michael Pasqualone turned up without having proposed to long term partner, Jess, his teammates made him pay up $2 – an increase on the usual $1 fines for on-field offences – which has all gone to supporting youth cancer charity Canteen.
“We’ve been together for 12 years, and we’ve probably known for half of that [time] we were going to get married,” Michael says.
The pair say they met online – “before it was cool … we initially hid it from our family and friends, we said we met at a pub” – and have been together ever since.
It was actually Jess who introduced Michael to the cricket club, and ever since she’s been their biggest supporter on the sidelines – “everyone in the club loves Jess” – with a few suggestions from family and friends that she be the one to propose.
“Oh, that would have been a massive fine,” says Michael.
“[The fines] was actually quite fun because I was part of it,” adds Jess, “and because Michael had suggested you know, in the years prior that he was going to do something really grand”.
Even after he’d popped the question with a carefully planned proposal at Lake Wakatipu in New Zealand, the fines kept coming. There was no let up from the team until Michael and Jess made it official.
The pair were married in May this year, after having to postpone their wedding in 2020 due to family circumstances and COVID-19, with Michael $172 poorer after closing off his fines and donating to Canteen – 86 matches later, or 4,365 days, but who’s counting?
Canberra City Cricket Club has long been a supporter of Canteen, having donated more than $19,000 to the charity over the years through their Bandana Round matches, fundraisers and, of course, the fines system.
“It adds another layer of colour to our days and a bit of banter between the players on the field,” Michael says. “It gives us constant connection to Canteen as well.”
And, if you’re looking for a new cricket club, or maybe just a team to help you work up the courage to get down on one knee, the Canberra City Cricket Club is looking for male and female players for the upcoming season.
To donate to Canteen, head to donate.canteen.org.au.
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