When researching prospect coaches for the upcoming Victorian Turf Cricket Association season, there was one reference that stood out for Seabrook.
Having started the coaching search back in February with a number of candidates, the club did their due diligence.
Last week they announced that Indika Dharmawardana had been appointed captain-coach in an exciting move for the club.
Club secretary Bernard O’Dwyer said in the end it was an easy decision to appoint Dharmawardana, who previously played for Sunshine United.
“The thing that struck me straight away when we contacted Sunshine United, was how they spoke about him,” O’Dwyer said.
“The praise he got from Paul [Cini] from Sunshine United was that he was quite professional. It made the decision easy in the end.”
Dharmawardana played for United between 2007 and 2016 and played a big role as they rose up the ranks, playing in one premiership and two grand finals.
Dharmawardana is a right-hand middle-order batter and right-arm leg-spin bowler and will lead the first XI on the field.
O’Dwyer said they were really rapt to bring someone with that experience into the side and hoped he could help them also rise up the grades.
As well as playing for Sunshine United, Dharmawardana is an accomplished coach.
More recently he has been head coach and founder of a High Performance Cricket Academy in Sri Lanka.
The arrival of Dharmawardana couldn’t come at a better time for Seabrook, which finished second bottom in division 4 last season.
O’Dwyer said they were expecting to play in division 5 next season, but had put in a submission to the association they would like to stay in division 4 if there was the opportunity.
He said after a couple of tough years with COVID-19, they were hoping to get back on track.
“It was pretty tough with COVID,” he said. “We’re hoping this announcement will kick start the season for us.
“We’ve already had some players approach us. Hopefully we can get the numbers and have some more teams on the park.”
O’Dwyer said they were also keen to get some female cricketers involved at the club, as they aim to be as inclusive as possible.
