Milestones loom for ace Dandenong all-rounder James Nanopoulos
His next wicket will be his 300th in Victorian Premier Cricket, and he’s closing in on Roger Gill’s club record of 313.
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His first wicket?
James Nanopoulos can remember it well.
It was against St Kilda in 2005-06, his first season as a First XI player for Dandenong.
It was a good scalp, too: Victorian player and now big-cricket umpire Shawn Craig, caught by Nathan Allen.
That said, Craig made a century, the Saints ran up 8-340 and Dandy were dismissed for 237, of which the great Warren Ayres hit 110.
“Ayresy’ hit Adam Warren for the biggest six ever,’’ Nanopoulos recalled. “At lunch we were about 5-40 and we were eating sausage rolls and ‘Ayresy’ went bananas at all of us, except for Darren (Pattinson)!’’
Nanopoulos — “Nano’’ to everyone at Dandenong — took 2-26 off eight overs (his other victim was future Test batsman Rob Quiney).
And he’s taken a lot of wickets since. His haul of 7-43 against Geelong last week was not only a career-best return and made him the Victorian Premier Cricket men’s player of the week, it lifted the right-arm medium pacer to 299 wickets for the club.
You’d bet on him grabbing his 300th wicket this week against Essendon. Then comes another milestone: Roger Gill’s club record of 313 (Gill played for Waverley, which merged with Dandenong 30 years ago).
Nanopoulos, of course, has also hit more than 4000 runs for the Panthers. He arrived at the club as a top-order batsman.
“Yeah, I was an opening bat who didn’t really bowl,’’ he was saying on Saturday.
“My first two years, I hardly bowled. But once my batting tapered off a little bit I had to keep bowling so I kept working on it. But I definitely never thought I’d get up to 300 when I was starting. Definitely proud to do it.’’
200 GAMES UP FOR JAMES NANOPOULOS
Nanopoulos described himself as a “steady’’ and “consistent’’ bowler.
“I don’t try too much too often. Just try to hit the stumps and swing the ball and seam it around a little bit,’’ he said.
“I’m not blessed with a lot of pace. I have to work with my strengths in other areas, do as much as I can with the ball with the pace I have. Works out OK.’’
Indeed it does, well enough to leave him poised to go to the top of the wicket table at a club that has produced top-line fast bowlers including Peter Siddle, James and Darren Pattinson, Paul Boraston and Justin Butterfield in the past 20 years.
“Obviously the better players have played higher cricket and haven’t played at Dandenong as much, whereas this is my pinnacle,’’ he said.
“There have been plenty of better bowlers than me at Dandenong. But I have been able to get a lot out of myself for a long period.’’
Nanopoulos was unusually expensive in the early exchanges of the season and he didn’t care for it, chuntering away to himself as he finished an over and headed for his fielding position.
But he was carrying a wrist injury that began to bother him three months ago.
“It’s starting to come good now,’’ he said. “I haven’t hit a ball during the week since August, haven’t been able to do any batting whatsoever, which has been really frustrating,’’ he said.
It’s no surprise Dandenong wicketkeeper Jacques Augustin enjoys keeping to Nanopoulos.
“Nano’’ has fed him a steady diet of snicks since he crossed from Fitzroy-Doncaster four seasons ago.
“His seam position — 99 per cent of the time they would come out dead-straight — and his ability to swing it and move it off the wicket,’’ he said when asked to name Nanopoulos’s strengths.
They were apparent on day one of the match against the Cats as Nanopoulos bagged six unassisted wickets, bowling three of his victims and trapping another three LBW.
But rain washed away day two on Saturday, leaving the match drawn, the Panthers 6-54 in reply to Geelong’s 155.