WORKERS Gol Gol have been boosted with Jamaican import Shacaya Thomas all set for another Sunraysia Cricket Association season.
The explosive batsman scored 660 runs for the SCA First Division runners-up last season, including centuries in four of his first five innings, backing up his 539 runs in his debut season at Alcheringa in 2017-18.
Workers Gol Gol coach Adam Thomson said it was great to have the former first-class cricketer, who turns 31 today, back for another season.
“Shac’s visa got approved last week, we’ve booked and paid for his flights so he should be out here in the next 10 days,” Thomson said.
“It’s massive to have him back, there were obviously a lot of rumours going around that he might leave but to be able to hold on to him and to also have Wade Hancock in the top order, they are as good as any sort of batsmen going around, along with Jase Morrison and a couple of others.
“It was really important for us to hopefully build on our success last year to keep them on board.”
After finishing runners-up to Settlers last year, the 2018-19 minor premiers have been able to keep their line-up consistent.
“I think we’ve pretty well got the same sort of side, Matt Boyd has a knee injury from footy, so he’ll be a late starter, but apart from that the boys from the Riverland are coming back again,” Thomson said.
“We’re just going to look for some improvement from Tyson Adamson and Lauchie Wade – I think Tyson got 500-600 runs in the Second Division last year so he’s probably ready to step up into First Division cricket, and Lauchie got 20 wickets opening the bowling, so he’s another one we’ll look at.”
Thomson said the loss to Settlers in the grand final hadn’t been brought up as extra motivation for this season – yet.
“We haven’t really spoken about it. I think when we start playing it might a little bit.
“We probably just look at it one week at a time, to use a cliche.”
Workers Gol Gol open their season under lights against Settlers in a grand final rematch at Alcheringa on October 5 – the first time the new lights will be used for cricket.
“I was out there a couple of weeks ago when they were adjusting them. I think they finish them off this week so they aren’t perfect yet but it should be pretty good,” Thomson said.
“Obviously with the white ball you’ll be able to see it pretty well. It’ll be a bit of a showcase event for the Gol Gol community and probably for the competition with the two sides from the grand final.”
