As part of a 44-day and 14,000-kilometre trip around the country, the women's T20 World Cup trophy drops into Bar Beach for two hours from noon.

The tour kicked off Wednesday at Sydney's Bondi Beach and, outside of the Hunter, will also touch down in Bowral, Brisbane, Ballarat, Bendigo, Perth, Canberra, Melbourne, Hobart and Adelaide.

Game one of the tournament, being hosted around Australia, gets played on February 21. Semis take place at the SCG on March 5 while the final is scheduled for the MCG on March 8.

* NEWCASTLE'S cricket communities, across both district and city-suburban associations, are joining forces to support NSW Rural Fire Service control centres in the local region.

Players, umpires and spectators in all grades are being encouraged to make a gold coin donation during Saturday's matches.

Donations can also be made online via the Newcastle Cricket Fire Relief Fundraiser gofundme website.

* COUNTRY Cricket NSW are donating "foodstuffs already purchased for catering" from this week's cancelled Bradman and Kookaburra cups to firefighters and homeless shelters in host city Albury as well as nearby Wodonga, Batlow, Jingellic and Tumbarumba.

* ONE of next week's opening T20 Summer Bash fixtures has been altered slightly with newcomers Maitland Flood swapping in for the Black Roses (Cardiff-Boolaroo) against hosts the Sea Dragons (University) on Tuesday.

This means the Black Roses now meet the Sea Dragons on Sunday, February 2.

The Flood would not have been unable to fulfill their commitments on the later date because it clashed with a first grade double header in Maitland.

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