HAMILTON Cricket Club will be taking a new direction for the coming Hamilton and District Cricket Association (HDCA) A grade season.

Simon Sharrock will take the reins of the team following the departure of former skipper, Brendan Weatherson.

Weatherson has moved to Ballarat with his young family and will not be returning to the Blues.

Sharrock moved to Hamilton at the start of the 2020-21 season looking for a new challenge after spending his career at Macarthur, where he led the Demons to the 2017-18 Dundas Cup, and formed part of the leadership group within the team for the past two summers.

Sharrock said it was a decision which wasn’t made lightly.

“I was approached about taking over the captaincy towards the back end of last season which took me by surprise,” he said.

“After a bit of time to think about it and talking to my family and a few people from the club, I decided to accept the role.

“I want to lead by example, someone that is approachable and accessible to all senior, junior and women’s cricketers within the club, and parents of the younger cricketers that we have coming through the senior ranks which I think is important.”

A prolific left-hand batsman who likes nothing more than to punish the ball, Sharrock has posted over 6,000 runs in the last 15 years with nine centuries and 27 50s and a top score of 144.

His experience as a premiership-winning captain will be invaluable for the Hamilton team, as the group of players have been thereabouts for much of the past four seasons, only gaining the Dundas Cup once, back in 2019-20.

Combined with his run making ability, his bowling has seen him grab 175 wickets in his career with a best return of 5-21, although his time at the bowling crease has diminished over the past few summers.

For most of last season, Sharrock came in at number four, but he did return to his old spot in the batting line-up as opening batsman for the last three matches.

“Obviously depending on the makeup of the team I see myself batting in the middle order,” he said.

With the HDCA clubs still to determine what formats will be played this coming season, Sharrock said he was looking forward to a return to a more traditional season.

“I am hoping to see a mixture of one-day and two- day cricket this season, I have really missed two-day cricket during the last two seasons due to COVID and I think it is probably the team’s preferred format,” he said.

Tobi Cook has been appointed as Sharrock’s vice captain and the young number three batsman will bring a younger set of eyes and thoughts to the mix, which Sharrock will no doubt call upon throughout the summer.

“I think it’s the next step for him in his cricket to take on a leadership role, he is only young and an enormous talent and obviously the next captain in waiting,” he said.

“It’s one of the main reasons I took on the role of captain, knowing that he would be my vice-captain.”

Hamilton will be looking to add more silverware to the trophy cabinet, especially as they have featured in three of the last four A grade grand finals with only one success.

“We have been riding a bit of a form wave over the past few summers and we just haven’t been able to peak at the right time unfortunately,” Sharrock said.

“We have a lot of young guys that are hopefully ready to take another step and really push for a spot, especially the likes of Tyler Ellis who is a huge talent, Noah Cameron and Archie Buck to name a few will get opportunities at the higher level.

“At this stage we are in talks with a few possible recruits that we can hopefully bring onboard, but having Daniel Jones for a full season will be like a new recruit for us, as he was huge for us in games when he was available last season.”

The 2022-23 HDCA season begins on October 2.