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Tight-knit Kalgoorlie 12 raring to go for Country Week E-grade

Headshot of Rory Coleman-Heard
Rory Coleman-HeardKalgoorlie Miner
E-grade country week teammates Matt Rout, Nathan Harte and Craig McCrystal will compete in Perth from tomorrow.
Camera IconE-grade country week teammates Matt Rout, Nathan Harte and Craig McCrystal will compete in Perth from tomorrow. Credit: Kalgoorlie Miner, Kelsey Reid

The Kalgoorlie-Boulder Cricket Association is optimistic about its chances at country week, despite dwindling player numbers and a last-minute promotion.

Originally slated to play in F-grade, the KBCA was promoted to E-grade after Albany and Bunbury withdrew from the representative tournament.

Just 12 players are available to make the trip from Kalgoorlie-Boulder to Perth, but KBCA president Craig McCrystal believes his team still has enough depth to challenge for the title.

“As far as our competition goes, we’re probably around where we should be; challenging to win E-grade in the hopes of moving up to D-grade next year,” McCrystal said.

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“If we took our best side, we’d probably challenge in C-grade. It’s just the availability of blokes (that is the issue).”

McCrystal’s primary concern surrounds managing the workload of the association’s bowlers.

Accustomed to weekly 35-over games, the KBCA is due to play five 50-over fixtures in as many days.

“I’m a little worried about who we’re going to get some overs out of, towards the end of the week,” McCrystal said.

“We might be a bit gassed by then.

“However, our batting runs pretty deep so I’m still expecting us to be really competitive.”

McCrystal said bonding with KBCA rivals would be a highlight of the trip.

“Playing alongside blokes we usually play against is great for camaraderie and great for the social aspect of our competition,” he said.

The association will start its campaign against West Pilbara at Coker Park on Sunday.

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