Manly Cricket Club undergoes culture shake-up
Manly Cricket Club are undergoing a big shake-up in their culture after finishing bottom of the 20 grade outfits in last season’s spirit of cricket rankings.
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Manly Cricket Club are undergoing a big shake-up in their culture after finishing bottom of the 20 grade outfits in last season’s spirit of cricket rankings.
In every match umpires assessed each team’s performance, taking into account “respect for opponents, umpires and the game’s traditional values, and emphasises the role of team captains in upholding the game’s values”.
Incoming Waratahs coach Tim Cruickshank has acted swiftly, saying that was a concern and conceded there had been an issue in the past.
“You don’t finish last for no reason,” he said. “It is something that we as a club take very seriously.
“To see that is simply not good enough and the club has addressed that. And the club has put measures in place to make sure that doesn’t happen this year.”
During his distinguished career Manly’s highest run-getter said he always tried to play with the right sportsmanship, treating opponents and umpires with all the respect possible.
“And that’s the way our players will be playing this year,” Cruickshank said.
“I would like to think we play our cricket hard but fair and in the right spirit.”
While Cruickshank said the players were young and enthusiastic with a great attitude, he would not be making any predictions about how they would perform this season.
“Expectation is probably the most dangerous thing you can have in sport and probably the most dangerous thing you can have in life,” he said.
“The second you start setting yourself any sort of expectation I think you are probably setting yourself up for disappointment or failure.
“I’m not even looking at that at this stage.
“We’ve got a lot of hard work to do. We’ve lost a lot of senior players and there are a lot of young players who really need to step up this year.”
The club start their season on Saturday against the Sydney Uni at University Oval.