By Alesha Capone
Shafraz Mohamed says that hard work is the key to becoming successful in cricket.
Mohamed has been appointed junior head coach for the United Tarneit Sports Club’s upcoming season.
He will also continue as coach of Footscray United Cricket Club’s senior side, after serving as captain-coach last year when the team made the grand finals.
Mohamed fell in love with the sport as a child, playing junior cricket in Sri Lanka at the highest level from Under-13s through until he was aged around 18 to 19 years-old.
After moving to England, he played for the Hoddesdon Cricket Club in the home county’s Herts Premier, along with Bloomfield Cricket Club and Saracens Cricket Club in first class.
Mohamed also coached the Hoddesdon and Herts Colts Cricket sides.
“In that period I was involved in lots of summer camps and junior academies,” he said.
He is qualified as both an England Cricket Board level two coach and Cricket Australia level two (high performance) coach.
Since coming to Australia, Mohamed has played A-grade cricket for Keilor Cricket Club since 2010, with the team winning two premierships and making numerous finals.
In addition, Mohamed said he has been involved with Keilor’s junior program.
Mohamed said he was looking forward to working with the young players at United Tarneit Sports Club.
“I’m really passionate about coaching juniors, I’ve heard there are lots of great up-and-coming talents down there,” he said.
“I am very passionate about cricket and love to build a winning team while creating a fun and inclusive culture.”
With his coaching commitments at Tarneit and Footscray United, Mohamed said he was preparing for a “pretty full-on summer”.
He said that there were plenty of sports available to young people in the western suburbs, so cricket was competing with others such as AFL, basketball and soccer for players.
“What I’ve noticed in Australia, similar to England – making them want to play cricket and making it a fun and enjoyable environment is important,” Mohamed said.
Mohamed said his advice for young cricketers was not to get disheartened if they do not immediately become proficient in all aspects of the game.
“Definitely, cricket is the sort of sport where there is a fair amount of skill involved and also hard work, any batsman or bowler can have a bad patch,” he said.
“If you’re a bowler, keep bowling and get it into your muscle memory keep working on it and your talent takes over.”
United Tarneit is seeking players of all ages and abilities for senior cricket in season 2021-22, details: www.unitedtarneitsc.com/
