Former West Australian fast bowler Brad Knowles has signed with Raiders to captain/coach for season 2012/13.
Knowles, whose father Jeff captain/coached the club for 11 years, said he was keen to “get stuck into it”.
“I’m very happy to be back at the club that I’ve known my whole life,” he said.
“We’ll start individual sessions in the next few weeks and training in a couple of months.”
According to the club, Raiders had an “indifferent” season in 2011/12, and Knowles said he was looking forward to helping the team improve.
“Our goal is to get Raiders back to where Raiders should be – a strong, successful club,” he said.
“We’ve got some really good young kids coming through with amazing talent, so we’re in a pretty good place.”
Knowles said it was “great to be back in the Valley”, after a long-term knee injury forced him to retire from first-class cricket earlier this year.
Raiders secretary Chris Stanlake said everyone at the club was “pretty excited” with Knowles’ return.
“He brings so much experience and leadership qualities to the club,” Stanlake said.
“We’ve got so many talented young kids coming through and I think he’s perfect to teach the young guys coming through the correct ways of the game and share his knowledge.”
Stanlake confirmed the club’s goal for its senior side in 2012/13 was simply to improve.
“We just want to keep getting better; we’ve been rebuilding now for about three to four years so I think we’re well placed to really take the next step,” he said.
