Tara Murray
Youth is the focus for Plenty Valley in the Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association north-south.
Having bloodied a number of young players last season, the Bats are continuing on the same path, keen to have a look at the next generation of players.
Bats coach Michael Rogneda said it was an exciting time at the club.
“We are really young, younger than last year,” he said.
“We’re really lucky that in our catchment area there is no other turf side [in Subbies].
“There’s a lot of young talent coming through the club. The best thing as the coach they are exciting to work with.
“You don’t have to motivate them. We just have to push them in the right direction for that continued development.
“Our number one focus is winning a premiership and then getting players ready to play premier cricket.”
Rogneda said there were a number of guys who had played in their first and second XIs in the last couple of seasons they were expecting to take that next step.
He said they were hoping that all three could play some consistent cricket.
“Liam Mallia opened the batting for us all of last season,” he said. “He made more than 300 runs and we’re hoping he’ll make more this year.
“Naman Sharma will bat in the top five and bowls offies. He took a 5fa in our last game last year.
“Another exciting young gun is Ayran Sharma. He’s a different one to the one that played in the first XI last season, they just have the same name.
“He’s in our Craig Shield side. He’s as talented as I’ve seen. Hopefully we’ll see them all do some good things.”
The Bats season will get off to a delayed start, with day one of the opening two-day match cancelled due to heavy rain and grounds not ready.
Rogneda said their ground, which didn’t have football on it, probably still wouldn’t have been ready in time due to the weather.
The Bats are hoping to be in action this Saturday against Oakleigh in their round one clash which is a one-dayer.
Rogneda said with more experience in the group they were hoping that would be back in the finals mix this year.
They finished 10th, one game outside the top six, after struggling in the back half of the season.
“We hope so,” he said about finals.
“We had a couple of key players miss games for their wedding and I was injured the last five games. We had guys falling over at the wrong time of the year.
“We were sitting third a game after Christmas, so it was pretty disappointing not to play finals.”
