By Steve Brown
LYSTERFIELD’S Nathan Walsh and The Basin’s number three batsman Jake Best have been selected to represent the Victorian Country Cricket League in the Australian Country Cricket Championships held in Wollongong NSW on 2-11 January.
Forty regional cricketers from all over Victoria attended trials at the MCG, Endeavour Hills and Bendigo, before 14 were selected in the final squad.
The championships will comprise of five one-day games and five Twenty20 matches against WA, SA, NSW, QLD and East Asia Pacific.
Walsh was the standout player in last year’s carnival in Mt Gambier SA, winning the Don Bradman trophy for the most runs in the competition and has been elevated to vice-captain.
The 26-year-old Best will become the first Basin player to represent a Victorian Country X1 after a career with Premier club Casey South Melbourne which included 74 matches and two seasons as skipper.
Last season he was selected to lead the South East Country Region Team of the Year after scoring almost 600 runs.
Knoxfield’s Tom Boxell has been named as an emergency.
Victorian Country Squad
Ben Boyd (Capt) (Warrnambool), Nathan Walsh (VC) (Ferntree Gully), Cam Taylor (Bendigo), Mick Allen (Gisborne), Jake Best (Ferntree Gully), Nathan Fitzpatrick (Bendigo), Tom Mathieson (Geelong), Lee Stockdale (Traralgon), Matthew Combe (Horsham), Lachy Dobson (Mornington Peninsula), Jacob Smith (Geelong), Chris Dew (Mornington Pen), Taylor Beard (Bendigo), and Cole Roscholler (Ballarat).
