Tara Murray
Netherlands captain Scott Edwards spends most of his time back in Australia involved in cricket, but it didn’t stop him taking on a role at Altona Sports.
Edwards, who is from Australia, joined the club at its junior development coach to help out the next generation of players.
Edwards said he was keen to get involved with Altona Sports and what they’re trying to do with their junior program.
“I’m loving it,” he said. “I had a mate that I’ve played a little bit of cricket with at my local club in the eastern suburbs and he was sort of keen to get me down to Altona Sports.
“I was keen to be involved in what is a pretty cool junior program, then being part of the seniors for the T20s it has been awesome as well.”
Edwards runs training with the under-11s and under-13s at training on Wednesday nights, while also running individual sessions when he can.
Many children wouldn’t have the chance to have this training if not from this program.
“It’s a big part of the reason why I wanted to be involved,” he said. “The system and junior program that Altona Sports has created for kids that don’t necessarily get those opportunities or might not have the financial security to be involved in cricket which can be a bit of an experience sport. To be able to to give back is really cool.”
He said most of the players were aware of his standing in the cricket world, with many watching him at the World Cup and becoming Netherlands supporters.
As well as helping with Altona Sports junior program, Edwards played in three matches in Sports run in the North West Metropolitan Cricket Association T20 competition. which ended in the semi finals last week.
Edwards put on a show in the three matches, hitting 100, 82 and 121.
Edwards said it wasn’t always the plan for him to play.
“It’s a little bit scarce when I’m back and when I am, I like to play as many games as I can whether that is with mates or at my traditional club Richmond,” he said.
“It just worked out I could play some games with Altona, while I was back, worked out nicely
“It was actually pretty cool most of the sides that we came up against were actually really excited about the opportunity to play against me I suppose, which I probably wasn’t expecting, “They were great, our team has been great and it has been a great standard to, alongside of some of the guys with the club.
“I got a little bit lucky, I was dropped in two of the three games with a bit of a low score, and managed to get to a decent total after that.”
As well as combining playing Victorian Premier Cricket and T20 cricket since arriving back from the world cup, Edwards was called into the Melbourne Renegades squad for the final two BBL matches.
“It was great to be a part of the squad for the last couple of games of the season, hopefully get some opportunities going forward.
“It’s always been something that had as one of my goals to get some opportunities in Australian cricket,
“I love everything that I do win the Dutch set up, it was pretty cool to get an opportunity in the Australian set up as well.’
Edwards short time home comes to an end as he heads over to Nepal for a tri-series. It will be good preparation for the T20 World Cup which the Netherlands have already qualified for.
“We always set high expectations for ourselves, have not been together pretty much as a group since the World Cup.”
