Northcote signs former Greenvale opener Eric Ghasperidis for 2014-15 Premier Cricket season

Northcote has strengthened its batting stocks with the signing of former Greenvale opener Eric Ghasperidis.

Northcote coach David Reid welcomes signing Eric Ghasperidis to Bill Lawry Oval. Pic: Carmelo Bazzano.

NORTHCOTE set out on a recruiting mission to add experience and a top-order batsman to its playing stocks a few months ago.

In Eric Ghasperidis, they have found both.

The former Greenvale Kangaroos opener has joined the Dragons for the 2014-15 Premier Cricket season, strengthening a First XI that showed improvement over the 2013-14 campaign.

Northcote coach David Reid said Ghasperidis ticked all the boxes.

“Given the age of our playing group, we were really keen to get an experienced cricketer in there,” Reid said.

“We’re pretty particular about the type of characters we’re bringing into the club and he ticked all the boxes we were looking for.”

Ghasperidis, who made over 500 runs last season for Greenvale, could prove to be an even shrewder acquisition if Marcus Stoinis stamps himself as a Victorian regular.

Stoinis was a star in Northcote’s top-order last year, but only broke into the Victorian Sheffield Shield side as a batsman late in 2013-14.

“We see our role as giving all of our players the best opportunity to play higher level cricket,” Reid said.

“With Marcus, we’ve been rapt to be part of that.

“One of the great things about Marcus is every opportunity he gets he actually takes it to play for Northcote.”

Reid said Ghasperidis, a veteran of 102 Premier Cricket matches, first caught Northcote’s attention with a sparking 100 against it during the 2012-13 season.

“We were very impressed with him then and we’ve been interested in signing him for a couple of seasons now,” he said.

In another boost for the Dragons batting line-up, Englishman Chris Dent is expected to return for the Australian summer after playing country cricket.

Reid said Northcote was confident most of its improvement would come from within, highlighting the quality of young bowlers in the Dragons’ ranks.

“We’re really looking for some improvement in our bowling ranks,” he said.

“We’re going to be looking for people like Joel Hamilton, a recruit from halfway through last season, to really step up this season opening the bowling.”

Northcote hopes to add at least one more player to its First XI squad before the start of the season.

The club’s pre-season will be launched next Monday.