By Marcus Uhe
A new era awaits St Mary’s Cricket Club in their ambitions for long-sought after success at Turf 1 level.
The Saints have battled in the top flight in recent seasons, having not qualified for finals action since promoted in season 2017-18, and only narrowly surviving the relegation battle to Parkmore last year.
St Mary’s’ percentage was worse than the Pirates’ last year, having struggled with both bat and ball, bowled out three times for scores of under 100 while making the lowest total of runs, and taking the least wickets of any side in the competition.
But things will be different in 2023-24, giving President Troy Cashman a sense of anticipation for the season to come.
Susantha Pradeep’s leadership has come to the fore, setting the standards on the track and in the nets with his professionalism and workrate that has brought his teammates into line.
While the long-awaited completion of new state-of-the-art WJ Crowe Pavilion, a $6 million investment from the City of Greater Dandenong, State Government and AFL Victoria, will help to connect the club community through social events and offer a more inviting cricketing home for both the home side and its visitors.
“He’s a bit old-fashioned, he’s a very hard worker,” Cashman said of Pradeep.
“He wants people at training and wants them training hard. He’s a professional coach, that’s his job.
“We’ve been playing out of marquees with virtually no social club, very limited social events at all.
“We were getting our marquees for two sides and scorer, now we don’t need to do anything. It’s going to be a lot easier on all the volunteers.
“The rooms are enormous, the change-rooms are great and everything. It will really help the club.”
Diligent recruiting in the off-season saw the club strengthen its batting lineup, through the inclusion of Safaris Moahomad, Parkmore’s leading run scorer last season, and Saveen Nanayakkara from the Brisbane club cricket scene, who’s off-spin will offer Pradeep another dimension in the field.
The return to longer-form cricket, meanwhile, is expected to aid the Saints.
“We were a long way away (last season) and we knew we had to address issues, and we believe we have,” Cashman said.
“We finished second-last and we have a lot of needs.
“We think we’ll be a better two-day side than one-day side. The guys that we recruited, they should be really good at both.”
ST MARY’S
2022-23 Finish: 7th in Turf 1
Coach: Susantha Pradeep
Captain: Susantha Pradeep
Ins: Saveen Nanayakkara, Safaris Moahomad (Parkmore), Rasandu Thilakarathna, Danidu Gunarathne
Outs: Ashan Anthony, Kasun Niranjana, Daveen Sasindu
Players to watch: Rasandu Thilakarathna, Danidu Gunarathne
Home ground: Carroll Reserve
Fixture:
Round 1 (one day): Saturday 7 October v Beaconsfield (H)
Round 2 (one day): Saturday 14 October v Narre South (A)
Round 3 (two day): Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 October v Springvale South (A)
Round 4 (two day): Saturday 28 October and Saturday 4 November v Berwick (H)
Round 5 (two day): Saturday 11 and 18 November v Hallam Kalora Park (H)
Round 6 (two day): Saturday 25 November and Saturday 2 December v Buckley Ridges (A)
Round 7 (one day): Saturday 9 December v North Dandenong (A)
Round 8 (one day): Saturday 16 December v Springvale South (H)
Round 9 (one day): Saturday 6 January v Berwick (A)
Round 10 (one day): Saturday 13 January v Buckley Ridges (A)
Round 11 (two day): Saturday 20 and 27 January v Beaconsfield (A)
Round 12 (two day): Saturday 3 and 10 February v Narre South (H)
Round 13 (two day): Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 February v North Dandenong (H)
Round 14 (one day): Saturday 24 February v Hallam Kalora Park (A)
