Record breaker Shane Dadswell and title winner Billy Moulton-Day to return to Sudbury for 2021 season
The second Covid-19 lockdown may have stopped their planned indoor training starting but recruitment successes have left Sudbury Cricket Club chairman Louis Brooks full of optimism for their 2021 campaign.
It appeared the chance to see South African record-breaking batsman Shane Dadswell grace the crease at Friars Street had been lost, following his 2020 transfer being cancelled due to the effects of the pandemic.
But a deal has now been agreed for the all-rounder to taste the East Anglian Premier League in Suffolk for the upcoming season, scheduled to start in April.
On top of that, title winning pace bowler Billy Moulton-Day is set to return to Sudbury with recently-recruited Haverhill star Adam Dellar bringing all-rounder Joe Kettle with him. At the same time, 16-year-old exciting top-order Australian batsman and spin bowler, Jayden Gray, is also set to revive his travel plans to join the club.
“I have spoke to his dad and he still wants to come so hopefully we will be running 2020 in 2021 and the club is looking in good shape,” said Brooks.
Three years ago, as a just turned 20-year-old playing for NWU Pukke in his homeland in a 50-over game against Potch Dorp, Dadswell (right) hit worldwide headlines with a knock of 490 from 151 balls.
And Brooks is excited about resurrecting the deal to see him in a Talbots shirt.
“We have to thank Gosfield School Cricket Academy as without their support in housing Shane, where he will be coaching, we would not be able to do that this,” he said. “We signed him last year and ended up cancelling him at the last minute. If things go bad again there is an option to do that.
“He wants to try again and things are looking good with Adam Dellar coming over with Joe Kettle and young Australian Jayden Gray set to come as well.
“We are all looking forward to next year. We had planned for various scenarios and we are planning for a season which will commence in April.”
With a truncated 2020 campaign split into two regionalised groups, under Adam Mansfield’s captaincy, which will continue next year, Sudbury finished second and also retained their Suffolk Cup crown.
But with the signings they have made, and confirmation Essex coach Tom Huggins will be overseeing their training programme again, Brooks is confident the club are primed to recapture their EAPL title they won back to back in 2017 and 2018.
“We are pretty excited about next year, although we did pretty well without an overseas pro,” he said.
“Darren Batch was the leading wicket-taker in the Premier League which was good and we did really well finishing second and winning the cup.
“We really enjoyed the changed format and had a lot of support from the town’s people which was good and we were grateful for.”
He added the junior section will also be a big focus of the club’s plans for 2021, having been hardest hit last year with the way things worked out.
“We only had about 30 per cent of the juniors last year so we want to get back up to the 80 or 90 mark and push that hard this year,” he said, confirming teams are being entered into the North Essex Junior League again next season, having found it to be less travelling than its Suffolk area one.
Brooks also thanked the Keith Martin Group, ALT UK LTD and Robins Row Insurance, who have all committed support for the club for 2021.
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