Yarraville Club has strengthened its top order batting as it seeks to go one better in the Victorian Turf Cricket Association senior division.
Coming off a second grand final appearance in three seasons, the Clubbers have two players who bring plenty of experience in Australia and overseas.
Former Sri Lankan first-class cricketer Dilan Chandima has spent the past 10 years playing in Australia in the Gisborne and District and Ballarat cricket associations, with Sunbury United and most recently Darley.
He won competition best player medals at both competitions.
The Clubbers have also announced the signing of Thuppahi Nadeera for next season.
A left-handed top order batsman, Nadeera played 68 first class, list A and T20 games in Sri Lanka from 2010 to 2015. He has since spent the last 10 years playing in various divisions of the VTCA.
Nadeera is coming off a stellar 2024-25 season, where he won the VTCA division 1 competition medal with Altona Roosters and leading run-scorer and a team of the year representative.
Clubbers captain-coach Mitch Johnstone said they had identified the need for more batting strength.
“We’ve tried to address points of needs,” he said. “We thought our bowling was lacking and we bought in Matt Doric and Josh Eaton.
“We now found our top order was an area that we wanted to address and two guys that we’ve bought in bat in the top order.”
Johnstone said they both bring substantial first class experience in Sri Lanka but were keen to test themselves in what is one of the strongest competitions in the state.
He said Nadeera had played the majority of his VTCA in the lower grades and was super excited to be playing in the senior division.
Johnstone said Chandima was also keen to test himself.
Chandima also has coaching experience.
“On match day we have a lot of experience,” he said. “It really helps me on Tuesday and Thursday.
“It’s another guy that can help the kids and strengthen the club wide program.”
Johnstone said they would also have some of the younger players looking to break into the first XI or stamp their spots in the second XI.
The club’s third, fourth and 18s all won premierships last season.
While the Clubbers have added a couple of players, they are also set to lose a couple.
James Damjanovski and Ash Sweet are set to retire, but Johnstone said he wouldn’t be surprised to see them play on.
Thilina Masmulla, who joined the club midway through last season, is also not returning.
