GREENOCK have two pre-season friendlies arranged for this weekend and, with the weather much improved, the prospect of cricket at Glenpark is looking much better for the matches on Saturday and Sunday.

Players and supporters were left disappointed last Saturday when the opening fixture of the season against Hillhead CC from the west end of Glasgow was unable to take place due to the cold and wet weather in the days leading up to the match which prevented essential ground preparations from taking place.

This weekend, on Saturday, East Renfrewshire provide the opposition at Glenpark while on Sunday it is West of Scotland who will make the journey down the M8 for the final opportunity for both sides to get in some early season match practice.

The weekend games will provide Greenock's Indian professional Rahul Dalal with his first taste of Scottish cricket. The conditions will undoubtedly be different from those he is used to back in his home country, where wickets tend to be very flat, dry and dusty.

Dalal is looking forward to the weekend matches and has been getting acclimatised since his arrival less than a week ago. He quickly had a net at Glenpark to overcome any fatigue from his long distance air journey and has been getting to know the Greenock players during training sessions in midweek.

Greenock Telegraph:

The pro is an experienced right hand top order batsman who plays state cricket in India for Arunachal Pradesh. He was the leading run-scorer in the 2019–20 Ranji Trophy, with 1,340 runs in nine matches, and the only batsman to score more than 1,000 runs in the tournament. He is also a right arm off spin bowler.

Club captain Greg McDougall said: "There is a real enthusiasm around the club. Players have been working hard in training and having a top pro this year in the team has given all the players an extra incentive as the season approaches."

East Renfrewshire, who provide the opposition on Saturday for what should now be the opening match of the season, gained promotion to the new Western Premiership Two as a result of finishing runners-up to Glasgow Accies in the former Western District Cricket Union (WDCU) Division Two in 2022.

On Sunday it will be the turn of one of the country's oldest and most respected clubs, West of Scotland, to come to Glenpark. The Hamilton Crescent Club was founded in 1862, the same year as Greenock, and the two clubs have a long history together playing at the top level of cricket in Scotland.

West have won the Western District Cricket Championship ten times since it began in 1893 while Greenock have won it seventeen times including the inaugural year 1893 when the club shared top spot with Clydesdale CC.

The Glasgow club will be opponents of Greenock in the Western Premiership One this season and will almost certainly bring a strong squad to Glenpark on Sunday for this friendly match. And encounters between the clubs in recent years have frequently provided well contested matches.

The most recent was a pre-season friendly in April 2022 when West scored 142 and then bowled out Greenock for 133.

Last season West finished in a very creditable fourth top spot in the WDCU Premier Division winning 9 out of 16 completed matches and will be aiming to be challenging once again at the top of the Premiership One this season.

Greenock’s team for the match against East Renfrewshire on Saturday will be chosen from the following pool of players: : GJ McDougall, GM Chambers, RR Dalal, J Hutchinson, I Khan, U Mansoor, A Mohammad, N Nagaraju, H Safi, A Sanghera, SS Sanghera, EA Stewart U Varma; Scorer: R McGregor The match on Saturday at Glenpark will start at 1pm

On Sunday, for the match against West of Scotland the Greenock team will be from: : GJ McDougall, PJ Bryceland, GM Chambers, S Chaudhary, RR Dalal, L Fischer-Keogh, JPC Hempsey, I Khan, JM Nowell, N Nagaraju, CS Pandher, T Polkinghorne, SS Sanghera, EA Stewart.

The match on Sunday at Glenpark will start at 1pm

Footnote: Greenock's regular 1stXI scorer Ronnie McGregor will be at Poloc Cricket Club on Sunday afternoon. He is a former 1stXI player at Poloc and will be attending the last ever cricket action at Shawholm, the club's ground within the Pollok Park Estate. As a result of the sudden and unexpected loss of the ground lease after over 140 years, Poloc Cricket Club, one of Scotland’s oldest and best known clubs will cease to exist.

Greenock Cricket Club is sponsored by Cleaning Supplies 4U