St Michaels coach Justin Ward will make a timely return for his side’s doubleheader this weekend.
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Ward has struggled with a knee complaint but returns as Saints numbers dwindle.
Spearhead Dave Garness is out with a shoulder injury, captain Ryan Forsyth is unavailable while Tim Wilson injured his hamstring last week.
The timing couldn’t be much worse with clashes against the top two sides in the competition.
Coming off their first win of the season, St Michaels take on South Wagga in the Twenty20 on Friday before clashing with undefeated Wagga City in Saturday’s one-dayer.
After small totals in two St Michaels Twenty20s, Ward missed a month of cricket with a cartilage tear but after returning through second grade last week will step back into the first grade ranks.
Besides a few matches here and there Ward hasn’t played full-time cricket in about a decade.
However when he was offered the chance to coach Saints, the 36-year-old knew he’d take a hands on approach.
He’s enjoyed being back in a club, even with he’s now one of the elder statesmen.
“It has been really good to get among the team and feel the camaraderie of the guys,” Ward said.
“It took a little while to get back into it, as they are all a bit younger than me, but I think I’m finding a place and it’s all good.”
Ward said the lack of the desire to keep playing, due to a combination of a heavy workload with representative cricket and the dwindling standard of cricket in Wagga, saw him give the game away.
He turned to golf to fill the void, but was keen to get back involved in cricket.
“I enjoyed the coaching idea when Ryan Forsyth just out of the blue gave me a call and asked if I was interested in doing that,” Ward said.
“I jumped at the chance and being around the coaching side of it I thought it would be hard to be around cricket and not play so I thought I might as well strap on the boots and play a couple of games.”
James Elliott is expected to play in Friday's Twenty20 while Eric Koetz, back from his trip to New Zealand with the Riverina over 50s, also comes back into the side.
However the replacement for Garness is proving a harder task.
Ward hopes they’ll have enough depth up against two strong batting line ups.
“It’s very difficult when you are playing the top two teams, especially short of men,” he said.
“But I still think we have a couple of guys there who I think can get the job done, particularly on Friday night.
“In Twenty20 anything can happen.”
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