Range finally feeling at home

Saddleworth and District Cricket League by KEVIN RICHARDSON

WHALLEY Range captain Waqas Malik is pleasantly surprised at the impact his side have made in the Saddleworth and District Cricket League.

After an initial bedding in period, the Kingsbrook Road club have won six of their last eight games to sit sixth in the table.

Whalley were one of three clubs accepted from the now-defunct Manchester and District Cricket Association — Wythenshawe and South West Manchester were the others — and Malik admitted they were completely in the dark over what they were about to take on.

He said: “We didn’t have any expectations at all.

“We didn’t know the grounds, we didn’t know the opposition players and some of the rules were different as well.

“It was all new, including the umpires. The funny thing is a lot of the umpires come to me and say ‘hi Waqas”, but I didn’t know what you are called and that was really bad.

“It is only now that we are finding our feet and if we finish in the top 10 that would be amazing, because there are 16 clubs and it is very competitive.

“Our idea is to give teams a good game. We respect teams and we want to gain respect as well and the only way we can achieve that is by playing well and competing well.”

With no professional or overseas amateur — the club would sooner spend money on their ground — Whalley have relied on home-grown talent from which to pick their teams.

However, with more than 100 juniors in sides ranging from under-nines up to under-18s, there are plenty of promising youngsters coming through the ranks.

The talented Din brothers, Ejaz, Ateeq and Faisan, along with Abisheik Kulkarni, have upheld the club’s policy by making a big impression in the first team.

Ejaz, a Netherlands under-17s international, has posted the highest score for an amateur batsman in the league so far of 134 — he averages 35.87 — while Faisan’s average before last weekend was a healthy 41.63.
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