Things continue to grow at Merrifield Panthers Cricket Club.
Each season the club has seen growth in its junior and senior programs.
The Panthers will have 10 senior teams this season, while they’ve seen an increase in junior teams as well.
President Harmandeep Bhathal said it was like a full time job now trying to juggle all the teams.
“The season come really quickly as we’ve been super busy with the number of teams and players.
“We only have two ovals, so we’re now using Highgate in Craigieburn. We don’t have enough facilities and we need more ovals, so it does make life hard.
“But we’re trying to make do with what we have.”
The senior Panthers kicked off the season in the North West Metropolitan Cricket Association on Saturday.
Their first XI came away with a good win against the Darebin Chargers in the George Luscombe Shield
“We started the same way last year,” said Bhathal, who is also captain of the first XI.
“We didn’t finish the game last year because of rain.
“The ground was a little bit slow. We got a couple of their top batsmen, who can score pretty quick and we were able to beat them.”
The Panthers batted first after winning the toss and made 9-211 from their overs.
Talwinder Prince top scored with 62, while Chetan Joshi scored 55 at the top of the order.
The Chargers fell well short as they finished 9-165 off their 39 overs.
Ran Shamsher Singh Sidhu took three wickets, but was expensive as he went at more than a run a ball.
Bhathal said they had kept the core group together this season as they aimed for back-to-back George Luscombe Shield titles.
He said they had looked to strengthen all their sides this season.
“We’ve had a couple of changes, but the rest are the same,” he said. “We’ve recruited a few new players throughout all the grades.
“We want to make every team even and not have the second and third team rubbish. “We want everyone to be competitive and on the same level.”
