Tara Murray
Westmeadows quest to return to the Victorian Turf Cricket Association senior division immediately has received a massive boost.
The Warriors, who will play in division 1 after finishing bottom of the senior division last season, announced the signing of Geeth Alwis for the next two seasons.
Alwis joins the club from St Albans where he played the last nine seasons, including winning the Roy Paxino Medal as the best player in senior division in 2021-22.
Warriors captain-coach Donovan Pell said they were thrilled to have someone of the likes of Alwis join the club
“He had good relationship with Thilina Masmulla,” he said. “To get a player of his standard is big.
“He resonates with our environment and he really wants to come the club.
“It’s a good sign what we are doing at Westmeadows is working.”
Pell said they were always looking to make their squad better and were never going to turn away a player like Alwis.
The signing is the first step in the club trying to regain their spot in the top division, which Pell said was their number one aim next season.
“It was a bitter pill to swallow,” Pell said of going down. “As a club, as a coach, we had the direction where we wanted to head in the next three, four, five years.
“We looked at the list at the end of the 2021-22 season and how we go forward.
“We had a young list. It didn’t pan out the way we wanted it to after winning the first two games.”
Pell said now the key for the side was making sure they had that right mix of youth and experience.
He said they had signed most of last season’s squad, while still looking to add other players.
“Aaron Evans has been a staple of the first XI, Ryan Nankervis came across from Plenty Valley,” he said.
“Myself, I’m not 30 yet. We have some younger kids coming through, especially in the second XI.
“Jordan Rein and Jake Johnston are 15-16,” he said.
“ Kye Attard won the second XI batting average after winning the bowling average the year before.
“Babar Aziz won the second XI champion last season. We’ve got depth, it’s about adding experience on top of the youth.”
