Mornington Peninsula Cricket Association: John Hastings to have development role at Mt Eliza
Mt Eliza reveals why the appointment of former Test, ODI and T20 all-rounder John Hastings as development coach will be “huge’’ this season.
South East
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Mt Eliza believes John Hastings’ involvement as a development coach this summer will give its players an edge.
The former Test, ODI and T20 all-rounder will work with the Mounties’ juniors and seniors on Mondays during the 2020-21 season.
“It will be huge,’’ Mt Eliza club president Tristan Faithfull said.
“He’s played cricket all over the world, he’s experienced all three formats of the game.
“With this season looking like it’s all going to be one-dayers his one-day experience will really help our guys develop as one-day cricketers.
“Anything we can learn off him is an absolute bonus I reckon.’’
Hastings lives locally and has a couple of businesses on the Mornington Peninsula.
Mt Eliza has been keen to get him involved for some time.
“We reached out to see if there was any chance and, yeah, discussions went really well,’’ Faithfull said.
Hastings’ role at the Mounties will be primarily one-on-one specialist training.
“It will be non-playing, non-match day — purely training based,’’ Faithfull said.
“We are moving our Tuesday training to Mondays, that has been the plan since the end of last year.
“So he’s going to get involved on the Monday which is one of the reasons it’s opened up for us because he’s got commitments at Kew on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
“Instead of group training, it will be more dedicated skills based training. We hope to get a lot out of it.
“It was the perfect fit for John. He goes, ‘I’m free on Mondays’.’’
Hastings has signed to play full-time for Kew in the Sub-District Cricket season.
Asked if the Mounties might be able to persuade him to play a game, Faithfull said: “Kew is his main focus and he said that. If the opportunity ever arose, definitely, but he’s fully committed to Kew from a playing perspective. He’s committed to us from a coaching perspective at the moment.’’
Hastings played one Test against South Africa in Perth in 2012 but has made a name for himself in shorter versions of the game.
The 34-year-old played 29 ODIs for Australia and has an extensive T20 career both internationally and in the IPL and BBL.
He also played 75 First Class games for Victoria, Durham and Worcestershire.
Faithfull said Mt Eliza was committed to building its junior program.
“We’ve been big on that the past couple of years, getting our junior program and junior coaching right so it can flow into seniors. It’s really important for us,’’ he said.
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