General News
18 September, 2020
Tim Fitzgerald named Pelicans skipper
A CHANGE of leadership is afoot at Bookaar, with Tim Fitzgerald set to skipper the Pelicans top side this season.
A CHANGE of leadership is afoot at Bookaar, with Tim Fitzgerald set to skipper the Pelicans top side this season.
The all-rounder will take over the role from veteran batsman Simon Baker, who was the Pelicans captain for the past three seasons.
Fitzgerald previously captained the Pelicans for two years in the mid 2000s before he left Victoria for Western Australia.
While in Western Australia he played cricket for Wanderers, a side he captained for eight years.
Fitzgerald said he was eager to lead what he said was a talented, young local list as the Pelicans seek a finals return.
“We underachieved a bit last year but the young kids are all another year older so it’s going to be an exciting year,” he said.
“Especially if there is no imports coming into the competition (because of the pandemic), it just evens up the playing field a bit.
“It’s an exciting opportunity for us. I can’t wait to get into it.”
The Pelicans finished fifth on the ladder last season after they coughed up a finals spot with a final-round loss against Terang.
On that occasion, Bookaar stumbled to be all out for 143 after a promising start had them well placed at 4/90.
Fitzgerald said that match was symbolic of his club’s troubles last year, particularly with the bat.
“I reckon we relied on three or four players too much but in saying that there was also probably a lack of opportunity at times,” he said.
“A lot of times it was our top order making scores so those batting at five or six and below, where mostly our young guys are batting, they don’t get a lot of opportunities.
“If we can get more runs out of our middle to lower order we can turn our scores of 150 into possibly 250s.
“Hopefully we can get 20 to 30 runs each out of our middle order. If we can, it will go a long way.”
Fitzgerald said Baker tried to give his team-mates regular opportunities where possible, but numerous washouts made it harder for the outgoing skipper to settle batting line-ups or give players’ chances last season.
He said the responsibility to seize opportunities also fell back on his batsmen, who he said may need to change their approach this year.
“We had opportunities at times but we were just hit and miss too much,” Fitzgerald said.
“Sometimes we’d go out too quickly because we’d try to go straightaway rather than try to get to 10 or knuckle down.
“I think we bowl really deep, we’ve got a good bowling line-up but when the opportunities come with the bat we need to knuckle down and really try to build partnerships if we lose two or three quick wickets.”
Bookaar also confirmed its division three side would have new leaders, with Taj Merrett and Thomas Henry to share the role as co-captains.