Albury signs batsmen Nat Sariman and John Spencer from Belvoir

The association's best wicketkeeper-batsman signed on Saturday, with fellow Eagles' premiership team-mate John Spencer also joining him.

"Nat has got a connection to the club as he played with (captain) Ross (Dixon) over in England," delighted Albury coach Alex Popko offered.

It's extremely rare for a captain to join another CAW outfit, so the gutsy decision by Sariman will certainly spark the association's interest and even moreso after all local football was called off over the weekend, due to COVID.

Sariman, who turned 30 last Tuesday, has played for the Eagles for around 20 years and racked up 4921 runs at 32 in his 172 matches since the 2008-09 season.

He's also coming off a wonderful year, finishing fifth in the run-scorer's with 617 at 41.

The right-hander posted five tons at Belvoir, with a highest score of 180 not out against East Albury in 2014-15, and 25 half-centuries.

He also claimed 184 catches and 29 stumpings.

Spencer's 3512 runs means the pair boasts 8433.

It continues a successful recruiting blitz by Albury, which fell to North Albury for the second successive season in a preliminary final thriller.

"Sometimes you speak to 50 and you're lucky to land one, but we've kept our targets lean and connected to most," Popko offered.

"We've targeted what we need in terms of cricketers, age demographic and also personality and they (potential recruits) have to meet not just one of the criteria, they have to tick all three.

"It's noticeable among the clubs and umpiring fraternity what we have around the club both during and after games with the families and kids and all wanting to hang around.

"Both (Sariman and Spencer) have got a young family, so they tick the box in that regard, they're great cricketers and great blokes, we couldn't be happier."

Generally speaking, cricket recruiting is a 'slow burn', particularly compared with the region's other major sport in Australian Rules, but Albury has jumped the rest of the competition in signing eight players, including Holbrook duo Corey McCarthy and Hamish Mackinlay.

ALSO IN SPORT:

"We've adopted a bit of a no 'dickhead' policy, we have high expectations on the way we want people to conduct themselves."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: