CRICKET
BUSH BASH
MORWELL Cricket Club will play host to a Premier Cricket Bush Bash country round this season on Saturday, 7 December at Morwell Recreation Reserve.
Casey South Melbourne will tackle Fitzroy Doncaster from 11am and will back up to take on Ringwood from 2.30pm.
The Bush Bash round leads into the national Big Bash League and has seen the likes of international stars Darren Pattinson, Peter Siddle and Clint McKay take part.
Last year’s three-game bonanza in Morwell had Casey-South Melbourne, Dandenong and Fitzroy-Doncaster compete with Big Bash players Daniel Harris, Clive Rose and Darren Pattinson all featuring alongside first class cricketers Lloyd Mash and Dan Doran.
This year’s trio of teams are all currently sitting just in, or outside Melbourne Premier Cricket’s top eight and each match is sure to be hotly contested.
Casey-South Melbourne is well represented by Gippslanders, with many locals making the weekly trip down to Cranbourne to play for the club which has produced eight Australian captains.
Ringwood were finalists in last season’s competition and boasts several top class cricketers including Ian Holland and Tom Stray.
Stray is currently captain of the Rams and has had stints with Victoria and South Australia, while Holland is an outstanding all rounder who regularly polls highly in Premier Cricket’s best player award – the Ryder Medal.
Fitzroy-Doncaster will be well led by the experienced Mash, who had a useful career as a left hand opening batsman for Victoria, and is likely to include Harris in the side.
Harris is currently the leading run scorer in the New Zealand Twenty20 provincial competition this season and is on the Melbourne Renegades list.
Morwell Cricket Club president Steven Reside said “the club is excited once again to be given this honour of hosting a round of the Bush Bash”.
“We think our ground and facilities stand up to be as good as any in country Victoria and we look forward to showing our ground off to the local cricketing public once again,” he said.
The Melbourne Stars Big Bash outfit will promote its brand on the day, with mascot ‘Starman’ on hand and giveaways to be dished out.
Central Gippsland Cricket’s A grade competition will be postponed and held on the Sunday.
Morwell is one of six locations across Country Victoria to be offered hosting rights.
