Cricket Albury-Wodonga players celebrate a wicket in yesterday’s final against Weston Creek. Picture: FAIRFAX
CRICKET Albury-Wodonga coach Trent Ball has labelled yesterday’s Konica-Minolta Cup win in Canberra as the best of his career.
He said the one-wicket triumph over Canberra team Weston Creek marked the return of CAW as a force in representative cricket after a decade in the wilderness.
“At times we’ve been the laughing stock of these competitions and we haven’t taken it seriously at all,” Ball said.
“Teams lob up and think it’s just another win in the book when they play CAW.
“It’s been terrible and to the point that it hasn’t even been worth having rep cricket.
“The last three years has been a huge turnaround ... a change of culture.
“I’ve been involved in rep cricket for 12 years and this is the best I’ve been involved in by a long way.”
The CAW opener said a lack of respect from opposition teams was a driving factor behind the team’s resurrection.
“We got no respect from the Canberra teams and the Sydney teams, for that matter, in the SCG Cup.
“We just call ourselves the CAWs and the Cowboys and we’re taking the cup back to the bush.”
Yesterday’s semi-final and final victories means CAW’s representative record now stands at 11 wins from as many matches this season.
It will now focus its attention on the SCG Country Cup final on February 3 before attempting to lift itself out of division 4 at Country Week later in the month.
“The SCG Country Cup is our main aim,” Ball said.
“To win that would be awesome.”