A special day at the Citi Power Centre today attending the 20-year reunion of Victoria's Pura Cup (Sheffield Shield) winning team of 2003/04. It was unfortunate that some players and assistant coach at the time Greg Shipperd (on coaching duties at present with NSW) couldn't be present but wonderful to see so many of the players again and a special call out to Jonathan Moss who made the trip down from Sydney especially for the occasion .
Also in attendance were two of the selectors ( often the unsung heroes in sport) from that wonderful period in Ray Bright and John MacWhirter along with other key off field personnel in Craig White and of course Elaine Parish and Shaun Graf as well as Greg Harris (Fosters) who was a wonderful sponsor of Victorian cricket through that golden era .
A wonderful bond exists between everyone from that era which of course was tragically impacted by the unnecessary loss of our State Coach in David Hookes and there were some wonderful tributes paid to Hooksey today about his impact on the group and Victorian cricket.
The reunion was held during the first days play of the Victoria v South Australia Sheffield Shield match and at stumps a number of the current player and coaching staff joined the 2003/04 group and again it was terrific to see the interaction between players and staff past and present.
Special thanks to the captain of the 2003/04 team Darren Berry and Bobby Quiney along with Tarryn Griffiths from CV for the organisation of today's function- it was great to be involved and to be able to contribute to the day’s activities.