The Hoppers Crossing Cricket Club is a

cricket club Zee Marathi is an Indian general entertainment channel which carries programming in Marathi language, Marathi. It is owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. The channel was launched on 15 August 1999 and was known as Alpha TV Marathi until 28 ...

located in

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History

The club was formed in 1977 as the

Hoppers Crossing Hoppers Crossing is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, south-west of Melbourne's Melbourne city centre, Central Business District, located within the City of Wyndham Local government areas of Victoria, local gove ...

Footballers Cricket Club after it received its initial financial backing from the Hoppers Crossing Football Club (HCFC). Shortly into its first season, sufficient funds were raised to recompense the Football Club and it was renamed the Hoppers Crossing Cricket Club (HCCC). The first team was entered into the "B-turf" section of the Sunshine Cricket Association in season 1977/78. The club were runners-up in the first season. After this, the club grew quickly to a level where four open age teams were taking the field. Junior cricket was introduced and teams were entered into a local Under-14 competition in the Wyndham area. Following the initial set up, HCCC took over the running of this competition, which comprised six teams. The club benefited greatly from this structure, as evidenced by the three Under-14 premierships in a row, on entry into the SCA's Under-14 competition. At the commencement of the 1983/84 season, it transferred into the Williamstown and District Cricket Association (WDCA). This was in conjunction with the club's move from its prior residence, in Heaths Road, to its current Hogans Road address. Shortly after this move, a turf

wicket In cricket, the term wicket has several meanings: * It is one of the two sets of three stumps and two bails at either end of the pitch. The fielding team's players can hit the wicket with the ball in a number of ways to get a batsman out. ...

was installed on the number one

oval An oval () is a closed curve in a plane which resembles the outline of an egg. The term is not very specific, but in some areas (projective geometry, technical drawing, etc.) it is given a more precise definition, which may include either one or ...

with the assistance of the then

Werribee Werribee is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Wyndham local government area. Werribee recorded a population of 50,027 at the 2021 census. Werribee i ...

Council. The 1986/87 season saw the appointment of the club's first ever coach, Greg Evans. In his first year at the helm, Greg took the club to the runners-up position. At the commencement of the 1989/90 season, the club took its next evolutionary step by entering its first and second elevens into the Victorian Junior Cricket Association (now the Victorian Turf Cricket Association (VTCA)). During this season under the coaching of Mark Mitchell, it won its first ever First Eleven premiership, in the North Central Division. It then gained promotion into North A through to Senior A. In 2015, the club was entered into the

Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association The Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association (VSDCA) is a turf cricket competition based in Melbourne, Australia. There are 32 clubs each fielding four teams (one per grade) plus an under 15 (formerly under 14) team in the annual J.G Craig (fo ...

(VSDCA). In that first season, (2015/16) the First and Third Elevens lost in the first week of finals. The Firsts to the eventual runners-up, Caulfield, and the Thirds to the season winners Yarraville. At the beginning of the 2020/21 season, the club completed their fifth ever VSDCA round sweep and first one ever in the opening round. All four sides defeated Melton with the firsts and thirds at MacPherson Park and the seconds and fourths won at home.

HCCC Alumni

Since the commencement of the club, it has produced nine First Eleven District Players with five at Footscray (Mark Mitchell, Jamie Rubeli, Grant Burns, Paul Murray and Nathan Caulfield), two at

North Melbourne North Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. North Melbourne recorded a population of 14,953 at the ...

(Trent Said, Ian Timms), two at University (Greg Kennedy and Om Patel) and one at

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

(Brodie Andrew). Two of these players have represented

at state level (Mark Mitchell in the Under 19s and Paul Murray in the Under 21s). The club has had numerous junior cricketers represented in the various representative sides available within Victoria. Englishman

Stuart Broad Stuart may refer to: Names *Stuart (name), a given name and surname (and list of people with the name) Automobile *Stuart (automobile) Places Australia Generally *Stuart Highway, connecting South Australia and the Northern Territory Norther ...

played for the team in the summer of 2004-05, and went on to play

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

for

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, the England U-19 team in 2005 and England A in 2006. Broad played his first

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

for England against Pakistan in 2006 and made his

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

debut against Sri Lanka in 2007. He has recently succeeded in Test cricket by taking his 500th Test match wicket in the 2020 Test series between

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and

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. Englishman Matthew Boyce, who also represented

recently against Pakistan played for the club in its 2003-04 season. Hoppers Crossing is also the home club of

Fawad Ahmed Fawad Ahmed ( ps, ; born 5 February 1982) is a Pakistan-born Australian cricketer. He was granted Australian citizenship in July 2013. In August and September 2013, he played for the Australian cricket team in both a T20I and an ODI series aga ...

. Fawad played brilliantly during his time at the Cats including taking two 8 wicket hauls. He made his international debut in a T20 against England on the 29th of August, 2013. He then made his ODI debut in a match against Scotland five days later. Ahmed has also had massive success playing with Victoria in the Australian domestic one-day cup and the 4-day

Sheffield Shield The Sheffield Shield (currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Marsh Sheffield Shield) is the domestic first-class cricket competition of Australia. The tournament is contested between teams from the six states of Australia. Sheffield Shi ...

competition. The leg-spinner won three Shield titles in a row from 2014/15 to 2016/17.

Current Teams

Currently the club fields four senior turf sides in the VSDCA, one senior turf side in the VTCA plus an Under 18 team in the same association. They also have ten junior sides in the WRJCA, a senior women's synthetic team in the NWMCA and an Over 50s veteran's team in the Veterans Cricket Victoria competition.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official site
Cricket clubs in Melbourne