‘It’s absolutely massive’: Nondies land Pattinson

It means two ex-international cricketers, Pattinson and leading Lion Regis Chakabva, are expected to face off.

Which is why the two clubs are looking to move the occasion to a show-stopping, stand-alone Friday night time slot.

“We want to make sure we maximise the fair bit of interest this is generating,” Nondies cricket co-ordinator Kyeran Ellery said.

The interest is being reflected on the club’s Facebook announcement, which has almost 300 likes at the time of writing.

Ellery thinks it’s evidence of how hungry the sport is for a fresh energy injection.

“Numbers are dwindling off a little bit, but this might bring some excitement back,” he said.

“There's some high-quality players in the GMC competition and I think for them to have the opportunity to play against someone like this, and our guys being able to play alongside him, it’s absolutely massive for the area.”

If you miss Pattinson against BLU, you could still catch him later on.

Assuming Nondies perform well in the short format.

“At this stage he would be available for a finals campaign as well,” Ellery said.

And there’s a chance Pattinson features in 50-over action on a Saturday.

But Ellery stressed it was only a possibility right now.

Pattinson is expected to be at the club the day before his first appearance.

“If it’s a Thursday night game, on the Wednesday we’ll do a big club training, have our juniors there, do a dinner, all of those things,” Ellery said.

“Get him to do a bit of a clinic with our juniors, then he’ll also train with the team too.

“If it’s a Friday game, it’ll just be the same but on Thursday.”

It’s a huge opportunity for the juniors to rub shoulders with a guy who wore the Baggy Green 21 times for Australia.

Which begs the question, how did Nondies get him?

The pitch started through the recruitment app Trainstop.

Well, not so much a pitch but more an inquiry.

And sometimes a star search on the open market pays off.

“We contacted him through that app where he had put himself out there,” Ellery said.

“He messaged me back, said he was interested in having a chat.

“We had a couple of phone calls, exchanging what our expectations were and his expectations of us, and then came to an agreement from there.

“He was really excited by the opportunity to come and give back to cricket.

“He hasn’t played much cricket over the last few years, so for him, it’s just about going into a different area and being involved with a club.”

There was another part to it all.

It didn’t have much to do with cricket.

“He’s an avid golf fan,” Ellery said.

“Cohuna’s got a pretty good golf course so that was a bit of a selling point for him to come up and play a couple of rounds as well.”

So, head up to Cohuna, mentor some juniors, hopefully take a fair few wickets, and post a solid score on the front and back nine.

It’s not a bad gig.