BACK IN CHARGE: First Grade vice-captain Rory Daburger (left) with captain Tom Belmonte.
For the second season in a row, Tom Belmonte and Rory Daburger will lead Orange CYMS Cricket Club's First Grade side.
The pair will be captain and vice-captain respectively of the club’s teams in the Bathurst Orange Inter-District Competition (BOIDC) and T20 Bonnor Cup campaigns.
The club’s Second and Third Grade leadership pairings are also unchanged from 2022-23, with John Mulhall (captain) and Brett Wykes (vice-captain) in Second Grade, and Mick Curran (captain) and Riley Krause (vice-captain) in Third Grade.
Al Dhatt will captain the club’s Centenary Cup team, with Steve Wotton to act as vice-captain.
Belmonte, a top-order batter, said he was looking forward to another successful season at the helm.
“Last season was a hugely successful one for our First Grade team, winning the BOIDC one-day title and minor premiership,” he said.
“It was also a great sign for the depth in the club that our Second and Third Grade teams also claimed their minor premierships, while Centenary Cup qualified for finals too.
“But it was extremely disappointing to lose the grand final of the BOIDC two-day and Third Grade competitions, and to fail to make the finals of the Bonnor Cup, so there are certainly improvements to be made.”
Daburger, an off-spinning all-rounder, said training and recruitment are two areas that can help improve those results.
“While we have lost some players it is fantastic to welcome Ben Orme, Matt Burgess, Max Richards, Harry Priest, Hadden Bennett, Kayden Cole, Ben Chiarella and others into our ranks for the season,” he said.
“These are First and Second Grade-quality players and they will be crucial to winning the premierships we missed out on last season.
“We need to find ways to increase the quality and intensity of training to make sure we give ourselves every chance of successful seasons.”
As a former CYMS junior himself, Belmonte also spoke about the importance of the club's up-and-coming players this season and in the future.
“It's a huge priority for the club to get our juniors successfully into our senior teams over the next few years,” he said.
"Last season our younger players had some great success, including winning the ODJCA under-13s premiership, as well as the ODCA T20 Cup, which included lots of our under-14s and -15s players.
“We are very lucky to have such a great crop of young players coming into senior cricket in 2023-24 via Centenary Cup and they are in great hands with Al and Wotto."
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