By Tyler Lewis
***PULL QUOTE: “There’s a sense of the unknown, no one really expects teams coming up from Turf 2 to do well.” Parkmore Pirates Director of Cricket Gavin Lehmann on his side’s expectation.
The Parkmore Pirates have no intention of being an in-and-out Turf 1 side.
After claiming an elusive Dandenong and District Cricket Association (DDCA) Turf 2 premiership last summer, the Pirates have recruited with conviction in order to establish themselves in the top flight.
Though preserving with the core of the side that defeated Heinz Southern Districts in last year’s grand final was a priority, Director of Cricket Gavin Lehmann was sure the unit out of Bloomfield Road wasn’t short of talent heading into 2022/23.
“We’ve pretty much retained our full list,” he said.
“Amal Athulathmudali is back, he was with us for about six years, but went to Noble Park then to Yarragon and now he’s back.
“We’ve signed two overseas Sri Lankans, one is Pabasara Waduge, he played for Sri Lanka A against the Aussie Test side not long ago.
“The other is Chanaka (Devinda), he’s a left-arm spinner, he played recently in their one-day and Twenty20 competition over there and I think he was the third leading wicket-taker for both competitions.”
With just Abhinab Bhatia (Templestowe) the only departure from a side straight off the back of a premiership, Lehmann revealed why he and his Pirates have gone so hard this off-season.
“We have looked at previous clubs that have gone up and gone (straight back) down,” he said.
“If you look at Narre Warren last year, they didn’t really recruit and it’s just a completely different game from Turf 2 to Turf 1.
“In Turf 2 you have 11 players walking out there, but there’s probably only five or six players that are proper cricketers, overseas or played a bit of district (Premier Cricket) – the rest are young guys you’re trying to blood or whatever else.
“When you step up into Turf 1, you’re playing against 11 quality cricketers that have the brain, they think, they have all played at a high level, you’re not against guys that the club is trying to blood.
“Without recruiting, I think we would’ve just gone up and come straight back down.
“In the last seven season’s I think we’ve played in four semi’s (finals), two grand finals and missed the finals once, it’s been a long road, to finally get there, we needed to make sure we recruited and recruited well.”
Despite the stand-out of its recruits unambiguously being Waduge – a right-handed top order bat – Lehmann was big on chasing a bowler, after a key stat from last year was unlikely to stand up in the return of two day cricket in Turf 1.
“Bowling was a massive key for us,” he said.
“I think last year we only bowled two teams out for the whole year and one of them was in the grand final.
“The one-day format kind of suited the make-up of our team… not only last year, by winning the grand final, but the year before as well.”
Admitting he felt Cranbourne was the best team across the length of the season last year, Lehmann revealed the Pirates are looking at the mould of a former Turf 2 side, as they construct a plan for sustainable success in Turf 1.
“I think Cranbourne was the best team in it, but for whatever reason they got knocked out by HSD in a semi and we won it,” he said.
“Not being the best team in it and then going up and not recruiting, I don’t think that was going to be a good foot hole to go up and establish yourself.
“For us, our main focus was: we’ve got there, now we’re under no illusions, we want to play finals, but realistically are we going to.
“I think we just need to not get relegated, I think we can compete heavily against the bottom four and let’s see what happens against the top four.
“The main focus is to not get relegated and to establish ourselves, I guess the Narre South mould, not get relegated and then build two, three, four years from there.”
The season is set to commence from 1 October, with 14 rounds consisting of seven one-day and seven two-day fixtures.
Parkmore Pirates
In: Pabasara Waduge, Chanaka Devinda (Sri Lanka), Amal Athulathmudali (return, Yarragon), Avisha Wilwalaarachchi (Comoora).
Out: Abhinab Bhatia (Templestowe).
