Fingers crossed for the start of the 2024 season

The 2024 cricket season will hopefully get under way at Glenpark this weekend, weather and ground conditions permitting, when the club play host to Paisley side, Kelburne, in a friendly encounter on Saturday and then Renfrew in another friendly on Sunday.

Preparation for the new season has been badly disrupted due to the very wet and cold weather which seems to have been around for weeks and months on end. Friendly matches which would have provided useful match practice over the past two weekends had to be cancelled due to unsuitable ground conditions.

So, this weekend's matches will provide players with the only opportunity to get in some match practice prior to the start of the league season which begins next Saturday 4th May.

For the 2024 season, the 1st XI will play in the Western Premiership Two of cricket in the west of Scotland, having been relegated from the Western Premiership One at the end of last season. The side will be keen to bounce back to the top division but will need to play consistently well throughout the coming season to achieve that aim.

To make an immediate return to the Premiership One Division, the team must finish in the top two places in the Premiership Two. To support the side to achieve its target, the club has recruited two top Australian amateurs from the Brisbane area, Connor Nowlan and Angus Tolhurst.

Preparations for the new season began in February with players using indoor nets on a weekly basis. But it is outdoors where the real action takes place and players are looking forward to making a start on Saturday.

Greg McDougall continues as Club Captain. He said, "We are looking for some strong performances in the warm up games and our aim in the season ahead is to play consistently well and gain promotion back the top division". McDougall will take the opportunity over the weekend to run his eye over a number of players who will undoubtedly feature regularly in the 1st XI during the season.

The experience of players such as Harry Briggs, Shailesh Prabhu and Sam Sanghera will be needed to play a big part in the team's ability to compete. While younger players such as Usman Mansoor, Cammy Calder and Aryan Sanghera should benefit from playing alongside the Australian amateurs and from their experience playing in the Premier Division last summer.

Saturday's visitors, Kelburne, will likely be one of the team's main challengers for promotion along with Kilmarnock and Renfrew. These three teams just narrowly missed out on promotion in 2023. Also in contention could be Dumfries who were relegated along with Greenock last year.

Groundsman Alan Boag has been working on the ground since early March and has got Glenpark into good shape. The improvement in the weather this week has given the ground a good chance of the weekend's matches going ahead.

All being well, the team for the match against Kelburne will be a mix of 1st XI and 2nd XI players and will be chosen from the following pool : GJ McDougall, M Ahmadzai, HR Briggs, CS Calder, I Khan, E Norris, CJ Nowlan, H Safi, A Sanghera, SS Sanghera, DC Sharma, AS Tolhurst.

On Sunday for the visit of Renfrew, the team will once again be a similar mix of players and be chosen from: GJ McDougall, CJK Hempsey, I Fahim, R Kumar, E Norris, CJ Nowlan, SS Prabhu, H Safi, SS Sanghera, AS Tolhurst, V Yadav.

Both matches are scheduled to start at 1pm.

The Club is grateful for the continued sponsored from Cleaning Supplies 4U.