BROWN Hill Cricket Club has bolstered its slow-bowling stocks with the recruitment of former Sunshine cricketer Amal Ranawaka Arachchige.
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Ranawaka Arachchige took 21 wickets at an average of 20 with his off-spin in the Victorian Sub-District Cricket competition.
Brown Hill president Phil Knowles said the signing was a valuable one given its shortage of quality spinners over the last couple of years.
“Some slower options in the bowling ranks – which we’ve been lacking for some years – so it’ll be a handy pick-up in that respect,” Knowles said.
“We’ve had a few of part-time spinners the last couple of years. Dean Ferris was bowling in the A-grade then went into retirement but had to come out of it to play. He had to get called up to the firsts because we didn’t have that other option in the spinning category. Amal’s certainly going to fill that void for us.”
The club helped the 31-year-old find work in the information technology industry and in exchange has won the off-spinners services - and is rapt to have him on board.
Brown Hill went down in the 2015-16 grand final to Golden Point and then lost Jason Knowles to Geelong and Shane Harwood to retirement but has since injected some quality recruits into its squad as it again hopes to be a contender.
Ranawaka Arachchige joins English batsmen and scholarship recipient Joe Crichard as the club’s key signings. Knowles expected its latest recruit to not only fill a void in the bowling attack but bring plenty of experience and leadership.
“At 31 years of age he’s not too old and not too young. He’s experienced, played a fair bit of cricket in his time thus far and should be a quality asset for the cricket club. It’ll give us another option in our bowling ranks.”