Kyle Adams retires from Premier Cricket to take on Greenvale Kangaroos VTCA coaching job
Greenvale Kangaroos stalwart Kyle Adams has hung up his Premier Cricket spikes as he prepares to launch his coaching career with the club’s VTCA team next season.
Local Sport
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Former Greenvale Kangaroos captain Kyle Adams is hanging up the boots at Premier Cricket level.
However, the all-rounder won’t be lost to the club as he takes over as playing coach of the Kangaroos’ VTCA outfit in 2020-21.
Adams played 96 Premier First XI games for Greenvale, scoring 1199 runs and claiming 130 wickets.
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After nine years with the club, Adams was looking forward to the next chapter of his career.
“I think 11 years of district cricket is probably enough and I thought the time was right,” he said.
“I spoke to (Greenvale president) Bruce (Kent) last year about helping the (Premier) twos this season and then jump over to the VTCA.
“I’ve loved every minute of Premier Cricket but at the same time I’ve achieved what I want to achieve and it’s time to give some young guys the opportunity to come through.”
Greenvale’s VTCA team narrowly avoided relegation from Division 1 North this season with a final-round win over PEGS elevating it above Royal Park Brunswick.
The club has struggled since a player exodus forced it to drop out of Senior Division on the eve of the 2018-19 season.
While he is recovering from a dislocated shoulder suffered earlier this season, Adams will be a quality inclusion.
The new coach was adamant there was enough talent in the club to ensure success at both Premier and VTCA level.
“There’s a bit of work but there were a lot of young players in that side, so there’s a lot of talent to work with,” he said.
“We want to make sure we’re winning and developing players, so it’s a fine line with Premier and local, when you’ve got guys that want to play Premier rather than local.”
Matthew Lucente finished the season as Greenvale’s leading run-scorer with 207 – 20th in Isaacs Shield.
Matthew Kent was the fourth most prolific bowler in the competition with 26 scalps, while Chathura Darshana was seventh overall with 23 wickets.
While Greenvale continues to struggle at Premier level, Adams was confident it was in good hands.
“There was only one outright loss across four grades, you look back over the years and there was almost two in every grade,” he said.
“There’s a lot more pride in results, that started last year with Lovey (Matthew Love) and the year before with Leggs (Jarrod Leggett) and been carried on by Kaush (Kaushal Silva) and Stretto (Michael Stretton).”