By Ewen McRae
Wyndham Vale may have dropped its opening game of the Victorian Turf Cricket Association season, but its new coach is confident there’s a strong season ahead.
David Buchanan is at the helm of the Charles Clark Shield division 4 side this season, and while the opening round loss and subsequent washout at the weekend was not ideal, he said he expected better results to come.
“There’s a lot of potential there, so we’re pretty hopeful things will turn our way and we can start seeing the results,” Buchanan said.
“We’ve got some good sides that we’ll come up against, and it obviously wasn’t the start we were looking for in round one, we were soundly beaten, but we know we can do better than that.”
Wyndham Vale was soundly beaten by Caroline Springs in the opening game, bowled out for just 88 chasing 4-169 in a one-dayer.
The club has recruited experienced opening batsman Arosha Perera from the Eastern Cricket Association, as well as Lachie King, to help settle a batting order that struggled at times last year.
It has also added Australian indoor cricket representative Lance Macdougall to the side.
Buchanan hopes an improved effort with the bat will help steer the side in the right direction.
“Arosha has played a lot of high quality cricket, so we’re hoping for more of that from him,” Buchanan said.
“In previous years we’ve been more of a bowling side, so I’m hoping with these players we’ll have a better balance to our side this year.
“We’ve also got quite a few young blokes in the seconds that we’re hoping to push up and have an impact this year, and we want to reward the guys that did well last year as well.”
While Buchanan is in his first year as coach of the club, he’s confident the club has what it takes to improve on its four wins last year to contest for finals.
“I’m coming towards the end of my playing days so coaching was a good fit for me, and with the players that we’ve got, I’m hoping we can push for finals and go out on a high,” he said.
“I’d be disappointed if we didn’t make finals, especially with those players that we’ve brought in.
“It will be tough this week against Sydenham/Hillside, who have a very strong line-up, but so long as we’re competitive against them I think the wins will start to come from there.”
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