Club-by-club guide: VTCA Senior Division 2021 season preview
As Victorian Turf Cricket Association Senior Division clubs prepare for the first delivery to be sent down this weekend, we take a look at all the ins, outs and key players for 2020-21.
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After a long wait, Victorian Turf Senior Division clubs will start their 2020-21 campaigns this weekend.
The competition has been expanded to 10 teams, with Westmeadows and Aberfeldie earning promotion.
Here are all the ins and outs from the top grade ahead of Round 1.
ABERFELDIE
The Division 1 West premier and promotion winner will be looking to make an immediate mark in the top flight this season. Abers certainly made a splash by luring Tallan Wright from Premier Cricket club Footscray in the off-season. The all-rounder had a quiet season with the Dogs but will hope to replicate some of the success he’s had in the VTCA when he made 842 runs and took 59 wickets in three seasons with Greenvale. Zac Mevissen is the only major departure. Abers’ spinner Sohan Boralessa looms as one of the most dangerous bowlers in the competition and will have opposition batsmen nervous after taking 37 wickets last season. Captain Craig Sheedy topped 500 runs with the bat to join Cameron West in the competition’s top-10 run-scorers.
DOUTTA STARS
Is this the season Doutta finally breaks the hoodoo and claims the Senior Division title? The expanded Senior Division will make the semi-final battle even fiercer and the Stars are certainly in the conversation. The loss of reigning Paxino Medallist Lorenzo Ingram is a major blow, with the star all-rounder stuck overseas. Fellow imports Will Jones and Luke Kilby are also unable to return, while Jeremy Peacock is set to try his hand at Premier Cricket with Melbourne University. However, Brenton Parchment is back for 2020-21 having remained in Australia over the winter. The West Indian international is capable of winning a match with either bat or ball and together with captain-coach Hamish Moore will have the biggest say on Doutta Stars’ fortunes.
DRUIDS
The Wizards produced an outstanding Senior Division campaign in 2019-20, advancing to the semi-finals after claiming the Division 1 West flag the previous season. They will expect to be among the contenders again after securing young all-rounders Ben Doll and Luke Shoesmith Doll has taken 65 wickets for Grand United in the past two seasons, while Shoesmith has had stints at Rupertswood and East Sunbury. But Druids will be without Sri Lankan Dhanushka Dharmasiri because of the coronavirus crisis, while former Sri Lanka international Indika Gallage has crossed to East Keilor. Captain-coach Michael Hay is confident is his squad, with nine players from last season’s semi-final side aged 24 or under. Druids will look to experienced heads in Hay, Leigh Wilson and Shane Windridge to fire with the bat, while Nathan Johnson leads the bowling attack.
HAIG FAWKNER
Haig Fawkner finished fifth, just missing finals, in its first season in Senior Division. A mighty effort. But the club won’t have the element of surprise this season. Haig has recruited well to cement itself in the top flight with Jaspreet Bhatti (Yarraville Club), Sameera Vithana (Moonee Valley) and Vaib Deshpande (St Brigid’s/St Louis) signing on for 2020-21. Indian opener Arish Alam is the only major departure as he is unable to travel to Australia due to COVID-19 restrictions. Alam’s situation has seen club great Amit Chaudhary come out of a short-lived retirement to lead the club and his experience and uncanny knack for taking timely wickets will be pivotal.
KEILOR
The Blues remain in Senior Division by virtue of the VTCA’s restructure after finishing bottom of the ladder last season and will field a new-look side under new coach Duncan Harrison this summer. The experienced full-time Cricket Victoria employee led Melton to four First XI premierships during its golden era in the VSDCA and was an assistant with Footscray in Premier Cricket. Keilor has lost ex-coach and former Sri Lanka player Kaushal Lokuarachchi (more on him below), while Shafraz Mohamed has also moved to Footscray United to take over as coach. Overseas players Danish Daminda, Callum Guest and Nasir Malik will be unavailable because of coronavirus travel restrictions in a blow. On the plus side, Adam Dudderidgem, Dinushka Malan (both Sunbury United) and Roshan Anuruddha (Sunshine United) have linked up with the club, while Lachlan Sneddon has returned. Chetan Arjun and Nathan Beever have been named co-captains.
ST ALBANS
The reigning Senior Division premier will be the hunted this season. A cancelled grand final and protest wasn’t the way the club wanted to win its maiden top-flight pennant and it will be determined to prove last season wasn’t a flash in the pan. Premiership players Trevor Bauer and Maksym Sosnowski will return this season and the club is looking to promote from within. New Saints captain-coach Brenton Cook said the likes of Kyle Chamberlain, Yuvraj Singh and Shaun McAndrew were ready to step up to the First XI. Simon Lambert was one of only two players to surpass 500 runs in home-and-away fixtures last season, while Geeth Alwis was the competition’s leading wicket-taker. Both will again be relied on heavily.
STRATHMORE
The Mores will be desperate to bounce back after a horror 2019-20 that saw them just survive relegation. While a competition restructure would have saved them, it provided a major wake-up call nonetheless. Former Sri Lanka international Chanaka Welegedara, Jack Tate and Carlos Maynard have departed in the off-season but the club is confident its young talent can fill the void. The Second XI claimed the premiership last season with Sam Dukic scoring 449 runs at 49.89 and Nick Marini and Jack Merzel taking 25 and 21 wickets respectively. Captain and paceman John Bassi’s return to fitness after missing much of last season through injury will also be a huge boost to the club’s hopes.
SUNSHINE UNITED
The Tigers are tipped to be one of the big improvers after a fruitful few months. They landed arguably the biggest recruit of the off-season in star all-rounder Lokuarachchi following mediation with Keilor. The 38-year-old spent six summers at Keilor and has won two VTCA competition medals – one in Senior Division and the other in the second tier. Lokuarachchi is coming off another outstanding season, hammering 536 runs at 44.67 while his spin bowling returned 21 wickets at 23.4. In 113 matches for the Blues across all formats, Lokuarachchi logged 3315 runs at 30.69 and 173 wickets at 18.28 apiece. Former captain-coach Neetan Chouhan has also returned to Sunshine United and will take over as skipper, while paceman Michael Glowacki has re-committed after he was limited to six games in 2019-20. The Tigers finished seventh last summer but also avoided relegation.
WESTMEADOWS
The Warriors shouldn’t have any issue transitioning from Division 1 to Senior Division, boasting a well-balanced team with weapons with bat and ball. Chinthaka Jayasinghe and captain-coach Tarek Moughanie topped the run-scoring charts last season, while Danny Law and Aaron Evans were also in the top 10. With the ball, Dean Pitts and Jackson Smith were both in the top-10 wicket-takers. Experienced batsman Darrel Brown has departed but Malith Cooray could be one of the recruits of the season having arrived from Glenroy. The all-rounder knocked in 370 runs (fifth most in Division 1) and claimed 19 wickets (14th) last season.
YARRAVILLE CLUB
The perennial contender is ushering in a new era under new captain-coach Mitch Johnstone, with former skipper Andrew Cullen, Emmett Bronca and Adam Contessa calling time on their decorated careers, while gun all-rounder Will Sheridan has crossed to VSDCA club Kew. Johnstone arrives with ample experience, having led Premier Cricket outfit Essendon, along with Werribee, Coburg and Roxburgh Park-Broadmeadows in the VSDCA. But the off-spinner is also a fine player, grabbing 20 wickets at 24.4 apiece for Essendon’s Second XI last season. Former Geelong West captain Chris Martin has also linked up with Yarraville Club and will bolster the batting and bowling, while Jed Kanagasabapathy has signed on after last playing for Coburg in 2016-17. The Clubbers will look to experienced quartet Trent Lawford, Ash Sweet, James Damjanovski and Johnstone, while young players Connor Poulton, Luke Destito and Allister Powell are good prospects. Yarraville Club has claimed a remarkable eight premierships in the past 12 Senior Division seasons and was runner-up in 2019-20.
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