WELCOME TO THE 2022—2023 PREMIER CRICKET AWARDS

throughout the season. To all players, coaches, administrators and volunteers, your commitment each year is critical to your clubs, squads and the health of our competition.

Congratulations on what has been an outstanding Kookaburra Premier Cricket season.

While we dealt with some significant weather challenges early in the season, it has been great to see the competition back at full strength. We saw the return of red ball cricket, some brilliant individual and team performances and our women’s competition continues to go from strengthto-strength.

I’d like to thank everyone involved in the successful running of Premier Cricket

We are grateful for the strong support and spirit of collaboration to strengthen the competition.

Tonight, we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the awarding of the Jack Ryder Medal. Collingwood all-rounder Ron Bird won the inaugural medal in the 1972-73 season, later taking over as captain of the Magpies from Keith Stackpole. The Jack Ryder and Una Paisley medals are the highest individual honour of the Premier Cricket competition. Many great players have been recipients of these medals, and tonight we will add two further names to this prestigious list.

Victorian Premier Cricket acts as a pathway to Victoria’s elite teams, and throughout this season we have seen many players elevated from Premier Cricket to our W/BBL and Victorian teams.

On behalf of Cricket Victoria, I would like to thank all clubs for supporting this pathway to ensure that cricket in Victoria remains strong.

Finally, I’d like to thank all our commercial partners, particularly our Official Partner Kookaburra for their strong support of the competition and Victorian cricket more broadly. Congratulations to all our award winners and I hope you enjoy the night.