CRICKET — Greenock Make Overseas SigningsGREENOCK Cricket Club have made two overseas signings for the 2018 season, 30-year-old professional Saurabh Bandekar from Goa in India and 19-year-old amateur Laurens Smit from South Africa.
Bandekar, below, left, represented India Under-19s, alongside current national stars Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ishant Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja. He is a right-arm pace bowler who is also an accomplished batsman.
He has played top-level state cricket in India for Goa and has also played in the high profile Indian Premier League for Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore. Since his first class debut in 2015, Bandekar has played more than 140 domestic matches and has scored 3,000-plus runs and taken 250-plus wickets.
Smit, above, right, is a top-order batsman for his side in Boland Province in South Africa and he is also a spin bowler.
Greenock will once again play in the Premier Division in the west of Scotland having retained their position in the top league at the end of the 2017 season. The Glenpark team will be playing against old rivals such as Ferguslie, Clydesdale, Poloc, Uddingston and Ayr, plus newly-promoted West of Scotland and Stirling County as well as 2017 champions Prestwick and south of Scotland side, Dumfries.
Greenock will require to perform to a high standard throughout the season to ensure securing their place in the Premier Division. It will not be an easy task, but there is no lack of optimism at Greenock, and the players have been training indoors on a weekly basis since February.
They will move to outdoor nets and training in early April and some pre-competitive season fixtures in mid-April will provide opportunities to get some valuable match practice before the first competitive game of the season in the opening league fixture against Dumfries at Glenpark on Saturday 29 April.
As well as 1st XI cricket, Greenock will also be putting out two further senior sides — a Saturday 2nd XI which will play in the Western District Cricket Union League Division Three and a Sunday XI which will play various friendly matches during the season to give young players the opportunity to play alongside some of the more experienced players at Glenpark.
From mid-April, junior age-group cricket will be a major feature on weekday evenings right through the summer until the end of August.
The success of junior coaching at Glenpark can be demonstrated by the national and district level recognition achieved by players such as new 1st captain Neil Flack, who led the Scotland team at the 2016 Under-19 cricket World Cup in Bangladesh, Abigail Calder, Under-17 Scottish Girls’ captain, Jamie Nowell and Tom Forrest, both West District Under-17 squad players, and Sean Fischer Keogh, Cammy Calder, Lukas Fischer Keogh and Emily Norris all featuring at age-group level in the West District.
The club’s overseas players will be involved with the coaching provision during the summer.
New players are invited to contact the club on 01475 724037, weekday evenings between 8pm and 11pm, or at weekends noon until 10pm, or call into the club in Brisbane Street.
