By ADEM SARICAOGLU
THE Sydenham Hillside Cricket Club is looking at exciting times ahead in the North West Metropolitan Cricket Association.
The Storm recently secured a second home in Taylors Hill as a result of the club’s growth through both its junior and senior ranks in recent years.
It will be the summer tenant of the new facility for the next three years, and club president Paul Rigg is looking forward to having a genuine second home to go with the Storm’s home base at Hillside Reserve.
“We’ve had our senior teams playing in municipalities all across north-western (Melbourne), in places like Broadmeadows and Maribyrnong and Avondale Heights,” Rigg said.
“This will house our third, fourth, fifth and potentially sixth XI on an afternoon and expand our juniors for the morning.
They’ve been using grounds all over the place for the last nearly 15 years, so to have something like this very close to our home ground at Hillside is going to make life logistically a whole lot easier for coaches and parents.”
To go with the new facility, Sydenham Hillside will also welcome a new senior coach for the upcoming summer.
Sri Lankan import Sanahasa Fernando, who dominated with the bat for the Storm in his first summer down under last season, will take over the role left vacant by John Thrush.
“Johnny did a terrific job, but sometimes coaching appointments have a use-by date,” Rigg said.
“Sunny (Fernando) came across last year and the playing group immediately warmed to him.
“He was coaching, if you like, by proxy in a lot of ways but he wasn’t the coach. He found it a little bit difficult to take it to the next step, so I think it’s something that suits both parties.”
Rigg described Fernando’s new role as one that will encompass the entire club at both senior and junior level.
“He’s had exposure to the Sri Lankan national team, so we’re hoping that he’ll be able to have access to many of our juniors throughout their training sessions as well,” Rigg said.
“Hopefully we’ll be able to utilise his availability and skillset to really rapidly improve our young group.”
Dean Allan and Jarryd Lindsay joined Thrush as part of the exodus but the Storm will welcome back Greg Wilson, who returns from 12 months of work commitments interstate.
Rigg admits a club like Sydenham Hillside will always struggle to compete with turf clubs in the kerfuffle that is cricket’s off-season.
And while Rigg remains satisfied with his club’s current place in the NWMCA, he did hint at a possible move to turf cricket some time into the future.
“That’s something we will look to in the future – and potentially here (at Taylors Hill),” Rigg said.
