WITH two scores in the 70s in the past two weeks, former Mildura West captain-coach Chris Williams is enjoying just being another player on a Saturday afternoon.
The classy left hander missed West’s Sunraysia Cricket Association opening round loss to Irymple but showed no signs of rust with a 75 in round two against Merbein South and then 76 against East at the top of the order.
“I think everyone is just happy to be back out there playing some cricket, I guess I’m probably in the same boat at this point in time,” Williams, 37, said.
“I had five very enjoyable seasons doing (coaching) and I got a lot out of it personally, I also felt that the club was seeing some signs of improvement for sure, but it felt like time for me to step away and put some energy into other aspects of life.”
With new coach Davison Mbindi now taking the reins and Luke Hickey captaining, triple Innes medallist Williams said there was less pressure on him.
“I’m certainly probably looking forward to Saturday afternoons now, whereby there was some occasions where I wasn’t… it’s a little bit of pressure off and I’m able to sort of play with a carefree attitude,” he said.
“I know my role, I know that my job is to score runs for the side, so far so good but there’s a few tougher tests to come: Merbein (South) and East are probably going to have a few tough weeks ahead of them but it’s still pleasing to get some out of the middle for sure.”
Mbindi said having Williams around was great for the rest of West’s side.
“Obviously Chris is a really, really quality player, he hits the ball crisply, is very offensively minded and goes at the bowlers hard,” Mbindi said.
“Having him in the side allows the other guys to just bat around him and let him express himself.”
Williams said he was also enjoying other aspects of life and the game.
“It’s important for me to give back now, my son (harry) is playing J1’s — I’m training one of those teams so my focus is not always on myself at the moment and that’s good,” he said.
“It’s about passing on that knowledge what I can to other people and making my Summers not so heavily reliant on crickt I guess, or playing cricket on a Saturday afternoon — so far I’m enjoying it, and I won’t play every week that’s just how it is.
“It’s a case of enjoying it and making sure you turn up with a smile on your face rather than going ‘oh no, another Saturday afternoon’ … don’t get me wrong I love the game but you’ve got to enjoy it when you give up that much time for two nights of training and then from 11.30am on a Saturday until 6-7pm, it’s a big ask.”
