English county cricketer Max Waller will rejoin Milnerton Cricket Club, as player-coach, for the 2018-19 Western Province Cricket Association season.
Milnerton Cricket Club representative Neil Perich confirmed Waller’s return to Club Cricket SA.
Waller’s initial association with the Cape Town-based club was in 2015-16, when they graduated to the first division A. They have since been promoted to the premier league.
The talented leg-spinner is currently playing for Somerset in the Vitality Blast – and recently secured Man of the Match figures of four for 25 during a key victory over Glamorgan in Taunton.
Milnerton Cricket Club were entertaining the acquisition of Gloucestershire batsman Ian Cockbain, too, but that ultimately didn’t happen.
Former Rondebosch Cricket Club batsman Dean van Blerk, meanwhile, has been named Milnerton Cricket Club’s convenor of selectors. The experienced Leon Russouw has succeeded outgoing chairman Mike Reynders.
File image: Dean van Blerk.
Premier league and first division A clubs will play 50-over innings during the 2018-19 WPCA season.
The WPCA cricket committee were going to engage premier league and first division A clubs about the format played within one-day cricket, which was changed from two days earlier last month, at a meeting at Newlands on Tuesday, 7 August.
Monday, 6 August’s meeting between Cricket South Africa representatives and club cricket coordinators countrywide, however, effectively ended the WPCA cricket committee’s bid to dialogue with premier league first division A captains and coaches about formatting.
“Monday’s meeting had agreed that all unions who opt to play one-day cricket must adhere to the CSA 50-over Club Championship playing conditions,” read an email excerpt from WPCA club cricket and facilities co-ordinator Lindsay O’Malley.
“This will be standardised across all unions and all premier and promotional (first division A) leagues must adhere to these playing conditions.
“CSA will now formulate the playing conditions and they will be sent to all unions to be adopted within the two top leagues of each province.”
The same is anticipated for the WPCA reserve divisions A and B, which have also changed from one- to two-day cricket.
Some clubs had informally proposed 60-over innings, while others suggested 55 or 45.
Contact jw@clubcricket.co.za