North Shore has been a part of my life for forty years now. Lived up at Takapuna growing up and played Junior Cricket here, thoroughly enjoyed my time and went on to play for the Prems for a considerable amount of time. Mainly a bowler I played competitively till 1999 during which time I had the pleasure of representing the Auckland B side as well.

 

Was bored to death to be honest of my old job at Adidas when this opportunity came along. Started out as Coaching Director for the Club and have worked in various roles since taking up the job here at North Shore. Being the Club Manager now, I handle the day-to-day administrative affairs; serve as the club’s chief contact for the ACA (Auckland Cricket Association). Look after the scheduling of junior and senior registrations, practices, matches and for some reason unknown to me spend an exceedingly long time resolving junior parent cricket politics.

 

The financial situation of the club has always been a constant worry since my time here. The thing is we don’t have any major Cash sponsors or businesses in the area. It’s a residential suburb with small businesses; the Navy and Takapuna Grammar School are the only two major entities around us so we struggle to have a major sponsor. Despite that we are always on the look out for Cash sponsors, and are devising new ways to cut our expenditures.

 

The start of the season and Junior Cricket takes up most of my time. We have around forty junior sides alone including Takapuna Grammar School sides so that’s a lot of administrative and scheduling work. Apart from that a normal day comprises of restocking the bar, dealing with Auckland Cricket, clearing the mail, making selection decisions, dealing with parental politics and some sort of junior/senior coaching.

 

The North Shore community is generally very supportive of its club. You should compare this place to what it was twenty to thirty years ago. It looked like a groundsman’s shed but due to the help and contributions of the North Shore community especially the involvement of junior parents and past players the club has blossomed into a nice little social center where the people can come in for a nice afternoon to enjoy their cricket and mingle with the rest of the community.

 

The biggest obstacle that the club faces is of course lack of revenueand the financial constraints. We struggle to provide the best facilities to our players, the nets need improvement, the changing rooms need renovation but all these have to be put on the back burner until the club can unearth some funds and redirect some of the cash flow towards these not so urgent but really important issues.

 

The players are showing enthusiasm in the betterment of the club. Several of them have formed committees taking up specific projects to help the club’s infrastructure out a bit which is heartening to see. The club here at North Shore has always been a closely knit group where the people have made lasting friendships and care about the general health of the club, which is why we don’t see the ex-players sort of drifting away but always coming back and helping in what ever way they can.

Certainly would love to see the club bring in as much Silverware as possible. In my time in charge since 2005 we have always been a strong unit hunting for the top spot but never bringing the cup home. I have key season performance indicators that help in monitoring the development of the club and keeping the performance in check. These get reported to Auckland Cricket as well due to North Shore being one of the major premier clubs in the region. The indicators involve coaching quality, management quality, senior team, individual, and representative performances, and on field success of our senior sides.

 

I am really proud of the Junior World Series event we host every year. It will be in its seventeenth year this year and it’s a junior cricket competition that is absolutely fantastic. It’s sort of the pride of North Shore Cricket and has won N.Z level cricket awards. An absolutely fantastic initiative bringing together most of the junior cricket in the region it has gone from strength to strength each year. It’s held 23-25^th Jan this season and is bound to be another great affair.

 

Would not have taken the job if it was any other club. North Shore is a second home to me. Having played most of my cricket here and understanding the basics of the club structure and the dynamic between the club and the community I was always attracted to come back and serve the club that I grew up playing for.