Sydney Uni announced strong teams across all grades for this weekend's opening round clash against Campbelltown-Camden in the McDonald's NSW Premier Cricket competition, at tonight's Season Launch.
The first grade side will welcome the inclusion of NSW players Ed Cowan, Ryan Carters and Nick Larkin this week, will see regulars Liam Robertson, Tim Ley, Ben Joy and Greg Mail return, and will welcome freshers' Ashton May, Damien Mortimer, Tom Rogers and Devlin Malone to the fold.
Second grade will be led by new skipper, Dave Miller, and sees a largely fresh-faced side including Ben Trevor-Jones, Nicky Craze, Hayden Kerr, Dugald Holloway, Kieran Tate and Nick Arnold. Kieran Elley is welcomed to the Club, and Liam Whitaker earns his opportunity as the sides spinner. Miller is joined by the experienced heads in Will Hay and Ben Larkin.
The reigning champion Third grade side will again be led by Ash Cowan, and will be boosted by Club legend, Tom Kierath joining his side. They'll be joined by Charlie Litchfield, James Larkin, Tom Galvin, Ed Arnott, Jono Craig-Dobson, Jack Gibson, Xavier Frawley and Ryan Kurtz, with teenage speedster Lawrence Neil-Smith rounding out the team.
The effervescent AJ Grant will lead his premiership winning side again this season with Ryan Danne, Ryan McElduff, Hugh Kermond, Matt Powys, Jake Day, Lewis McMahon and Nick Powys returning for another crack, Alex Shaw returning to the fold, and newcomers Vince Umbers and Christian Lorenzato looking to make their mark.
With the upcoming nuptials of Fifth grade skipper Mike Harris, Suda Sivapalan will fill his shoes as captain and takes on an exciting bunch of talented youngsters including Kevin Jacobs, Braydon Dilley, Doug Rogers, Alex Bell, Jarrod Morley, Ryan Holcroft, Aidan Peek, Muneeb Shirazi, and 2015-16 Green Shield alumni Natesh Yoganand and Connor Slater.
Metropolitan Cup will again be led by Andrew Wilkinson and sees an almost completely new side for 2016-17. He is rejoined by Jono Phoebus, Islam Zohirul and Ethan Clout, with freshers' Sameer Murthy, James Gillespie, Danny Wicks, Brad Osman-Kayani, and Hamish Rogers joining them. Hamish is joined by younger brother and Green Shield squad member Ewan, as well as fellow Greenie, Shivansh Pathak.
Full team lists can be found here.
Round 1 action will be Limited Overs matches with 1st Grade starting off at home on the hallowed turf of Uni No. 1 Oval, now to be known as the Sydney Uni Cricket Ground. Play starts from 9.30am and as always will be streamed live via our website.
Good luck to all our players and supporters for another powerful season.