Southern Cricket Association’s players to watch in 2024-25

The Southern Cricket Association will kick off this weekend with every team eyeing a title this season. We’ve spoken to the first grade clubs to see who the players to watch this season are.

The Gurka Legends Cricket Club members Aashish Sapkota, Sandip Adhikari, Prakash Upreti, Khem Raj Poudel and Lalit Lamsal (Anzit) at Risdon Vale. Picture: Chris Kidd

The Southern Cricket Association first grade competition will kick off this weekend with every team looking to put together a strong summer on the field.

Each team will be relying on a select group of players inside their starting XI to perform strongly across the course of the year.

This masthead contacted every club to nominate the players they think fans should keep an eye on this season.

Here’s who they selected.

Gurkha Legends

The Gurka Legends Cricket Club members Aashish Sapkota, Sandip Adhikari, Prakash Upreti, Khem Raj Poudel and Lalit Lamsal (Anzit) at Risdon Vale. Picture: Chris Kidd

Sandip Adhikari

A terrific batsman, right arm spin bowler and gun fielder, Adhikari has already made a huge impact last season in 1st grade and was the club’s highest scorer for the season.

Subrat Bhattarai

The highest wicket taker of Gurkha Legends last season who can also contribute with the bat in the lower order.

Janidu Colonne

Colonne is a very stylish left hand batter who has been around for a few seasons and has performed consistently with the bat and ball.

Khem Raj Poudel

The brilliant captain with a wealth of experience. Raj Poudel knows how to use and explore the best out of the team and is a technically sound batsman and gun wicketkeeper.

MacKillop Beltas

Toby Morley

An extremely powerful striker of the cricket ball, Morley has shown a renewed ruthlessness with his batting this pre-season. His ability to single-handedly take over a game is certainly special and something we look forward to seeing more of this season.

Jed Steele

A player of Steele’s pedigree will always find a way to consistently score runs, at any level. After spending his first full season in the SCA last year, the Beltas are looking forward to Steele establishing himself as one of the league’s premier batsman this year.

Jed Steele has been named among the players to watch.

Rokeby

Fraser Pyke

A very talented all around cricketer who had a slow start to the season last year. Pyke started to get his mojo back towards the end of the season and showed the competition what he can do with both bat and ball. One to keep an eye on this summer.

Former Adelaide Crows star Ian Callinan is just as good with the bat as he is with the football. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Ian Callinan

Callinan is ageing like a fine wine and comes into the season off a red hot campaign last summer. The man known as ‘Wingnut’ is showing no signs of slowing down and is primed to put together another stellar year.

Justin Wright

Wright is the stalwart of the Rokeby Cricket Club and is another coming off a strong season in 2023-24. ‘Chops’ has recently stepped down from the captaincy role but has taken on the job as club coach this summer.

Tom Studley

Studley is a damaging bowler who has the potential to do a lot of damage to the top order of opposition teams this season and can win games off his own back.

Sorell

Tim Smith

A veteran of the club, Sorell’s return to the first grade competition coincides with Smith’s own return to the highest level in the SCA. A multiple time best player winner, Smith’s skills with both bat and ball are unquestioned while he is also a gun in the field.

Oliver Holdsworth

Holdsworth is another young gun looking to dominate this season. He broke out with the bat last season in a number of matchwinning performances at the top of the order. As he continues to develop, he will be an exciting player to watch him come to the crease every game.

Sam McLagan

A role player who always gives his all, McLagan is always reliable in the field and creates chances out of nothing.

Weily Park KLM Kings

Jagjit Singh

Singh has already proven his matchwinning capabilities with both bat and ball in the Houn Channel Cricket Association across the last few seasons. After taking the year off, he is back at the Kings this season and his skill set should allow him to thrive and make a big impact this season.

Jugraj Singh

Singh has played on and off for the last few years but has committed for a full season this season following a strong pre-season campaign. Anticipate him to play an important role at the top of the order with his positive stroke play.

Sarwan Kumar

Kumar is a talented all-rounder and is known for his explosive batting at the start of innings. With the ball, he has proven to be vital, while contributing breakthroughs at key moments.

Jeff Hemming has made the move to Hobart and will play for Wellington this season. Picture: Waide Maguire.

Wellington

Vishwa Yahampath

Yahampath has come across to Wellington this year after playing with the Weily Park Rockers last year. Yahampath has been working extremely hard in the nets with a couple of different changes to his batting technique so watch out for a strong performer at the top of the order this summer.

Jeff Hemming

Hemming is another new recruit who has moved down to Hobart from New South Wales. He is a current over 40s Australian player who boasts an insane cricket resume and should be exciting to watch him craft his magic in the competition this season.

Note: Knights Cricket Club, Claremont Cricket Club and New Norfolk Cricket Club were all contacted for their nominations but did not to respond before publication.