The week-long event concluded on Friday following four days of action.

Chairman of the organising committee David Benn was thrilled by how the event, which started on Sunday, was received.

“It has been absolutely fantastic,” Benn said.

“There has been some marvellous comments about the whole thing.”

The City of Good Sports lived up to its name, with Benn reporting the visitors were very impressed by Wagga.

Even though the wet conditions of Bolton Park forced the festival to be moved to Duke of Kent Oval, there has been a push to have the city host a world games following Christchurch’s turn in January.

Benn said it was something to be considered.

While the event is an Australian festival, there was plenty of international flavour.

There was a large contingent of Indian cricketers who made the trip out.

While the lush green surrounds of Duke of Kent Oval are very different to the usual subcontinent decks, Vipul Patel said it was an enjoyable trip.

“It’s a nice quiet town, a pretty small town compared to our country,” Patel said.

“The people are nice, quiet and it looks like a hill station to us.”

However, the Wagga weather did take some acclimatising to for many of his teammates.

“The cricket has been pretty good,” Patel said.

“It has been a little bit cooler for us, we come from a very warm country and it was pretty overcast, so we had a little bit of a tough time facing the chilly wind, but it has been fine.

“The people have been really kind and we’ve really enjoyed the games.

“We were a few members short when we came over here through other commitments so we’ve had people from Australian teams plus one gentleman from New Zealand play for us, which was very nice.”

Cricket is an obsession in India, but it isn’t just the love of the game that sees such a strong contingent be part of the festival.

Patel hails from Vapi, a city of 200,000 north of Mumbai, which has hosted a world festival.

He said the atmosphere of the rotary events inspires people to take part.

“Rotary International is a bonding base behind cricket and rotarians,” he said.

“This is giving us the opportunity to exchange cultures, understand each other and to realise our connections for future humanitarian projects across the country and throughout the world.”