1 day Ago By [email protected] (Craig Tucker)
Collingham & District CC make their return to the top flight of club cricket this weekend after a 20-year absence. They open the Notts Premier League season at home to Wollaton on Saturday (11.30am) following their promotion as Division 2 champions.
They’ve made several new signings, notably Pakistani batsman Jamal Anwar, who’s played first class cricket for Rawalpindi. Burhan Alam won promotion in his first season as captain last year and is ready for the challenge ahead. “It will be interesting to see how everyone gets on,” he said.
“It’s a good standard but we’ve made some good signings and we’ve got a good group of lads. “We’ve had lads that have played at the club for the last two or three years and we’ve built a strong team. “Although it’s a strong league, I think we’re very capable.
“The lads have shown it so far. We’ve had a good pre-season, some good performances. “The main goal is to establish ourselves as a Premier League club.
“I’m not looking at just survival. “I think it’s important to take each game at a time. “We’re more than capable of staying up and maybe pushing towards mid-table.
“The main thing at the moment is getting the group together and playing as many games as possible and getting everyone to gel, but we’ve got a talented squad and a lot of young lads coming through as well.” Promotion was something of a surprise for Collingham last season but the team flourished under Alam’s captaincy. A good start built early momentum and there was no stopping them.
“Since I’ve been at the club I’ve always wanted Collingham to get to the Prem,” said Alam. “We lost a couple of key players last year and I don’t think at the start of the year anyone would have thought we’d be in and around promotion, never mind winning the league. “It was a nice surprise and credit goes to all the lads.
The whole squad played their part. “We just took it one game at a time, we had a good start and went unbeaten for 11 or 12 games, so that gave us a nice foundation and we built on that over the season. “I don’t think we thought we were in contention for promotion, however, secretly all the lads knew they wanted to play Premier League cricket and that’s where we wanted the club to be.
“It was nice to get over the line in my first season as captain and hopefully carry that on and have another good season. “I see myself as quite a relaxed person. “I want lads to enjoy their cricket, that’s the main thing.
“I let lads go out and play their own game, be free and fearless. “That’s the brand of cricket I like to play. “You’re always going to have failures but as long as you’re going out being positive, that’s the main thing.
“The group really bought into that last year. “Everyone was backing each other, everyone was happy for each other, everyone was enjoying their cricket and we built a really good atmosphere in the changing room, which was probably one of the main aspects of our success, just the spirit we built. “Win or lose, everyone was happy and positive to be around the group.
“You play your best cricket when you’re enjoying your cricket, so that’s worked well for us last year and we’ll try to continue that.” Collingham put up a good fight in a 44-run National Cup defeat by a formidable Ticknall side on Sunday. Derbyshire county players Paul Borrington (148 not out) and Tom Wood (131) put on 267 for the first wicket as the visitors closed on 296-2.
Seventeen-year-old Ben Jones top-scored in reply, hitting 72 off 67 balls, with Collingham 252 all out..
