By DAVID NAGEL
PAKENHAM Cricket Club’s new captain-coach Jason Williams admits he has awfully big shoes to fill but is confident he can lead the Lions to a successful season in the WGCA Premier Division.
Williams, 28, an experienced and classy batsman, has taken over the reins from Dom Paynter, the Country Week skipper who will be out of action this summer after sustaining a clean tear of the anterior cruciate and medial ligaments in his left knee.
Williams agrees that the circumstances aren’t ideal, but is looking forward to leading the club and maintaining the momentum that has been built in recent seasons.
“It’s been tough, we were all hoping for the best for Dom, hoping he would get good news, but that didn’t eventuate so a few of us senior guys needed to step up,” Williams said.
“Obviously they’re big shoes to fill, but I’ve been assistant coach the last three years so there won’t be too much difference to the way we go about things.
“Dom and I have got similar ideas on how the game should be played, we bounce off each other pretty well, so we won’t rock the boat too much.”
Williams has some quality by his side, with senior players Jack Anning, Russ Lehman, Sean Gramc and Bradey Welsh forming a leadership group that will be looking to build on the Lions’ semi-final loss from last year.
“We were pretty content with the group we had last year, so with natural improvement I can’t see why we can’t give it a shake this season,” the new skipper said.
“We’re aiming for finals again and hopefully we can push at least one step further than last year.”
Club president Phil Anning said the club was lucky to have someone with Williams’ quality to take over the role.
“We feel as a committee that we had a coaching panel in waiting,” Anning said.
“Jason Williams is well respected and a good leader and we’re confident he and his leadership group will do a great job.
“Obviously Dom’s rehabilitation is the number-one thing for him right now and we’ll welcome him back with open arms once he’s ready to return.”
Anning and his committee were blown away with the response to last week’s registration day, where more than 200 people made their way through the club’s doors. Anning said the support was fantastic but it does bring about some new challenges.
“We look like fielding three under 11s and four under 13s, possibly two under 15s and an under 17,” he said.
“The challenge we have now is to find volunteers to team manage and coach these junior sides. We don’t want any kid to miss a game of cricket because we don’t have coaches, so if anyone is interested in being involved, please get in touch with the club.
“If that support from last week continues our club is in a great position.”
