Six Gun Grill Western Province have announced their squad for the 2022/2023 season as head coach Salieg Nackerdien welcomes back a familiar face to Cape Town and adds both a dash of youth and experience to his arsenal to tackle the challenges ahead.
The familiar face returning home is that of former Western Province and Cape Cobras bowler Dane Paterson who reunites with a coach he has worked with for many years.
“I’ve been with Pato for the last 12 years or so, starting at Western Province with him, and I know what he can offer the team, he’s been part of winning teams over the past 10 years as well,” said Nackerdien.
Paterson is currently plying his trade over in the County circuit with Nottinghamshire and with 121 first-class matches and 441 wickets at an average of 22.84 to go with his 93 List A matches, 98 T20 matches and international cricket in all three formats for the Proteas behind his name, he will bring experience to a bowling unit which will include the likes of Beuran Hendricks, Nandre Burger and Tshepo Moreki to go with all-rounders Wayne Parnell, George Linde, Mihlali Mpongwana, Kyle Simmonds and Aviwe Mgijima.
Adding to those all-round stocks will be 18-year-old Ethan Cunningham, who earns his first professional contract as the rookie in the squad and Nackerdien believes he has a bright future at WP.
“Ethan is a young, up-and-coming all-rounder. He played in the ICC U19 World Cup for South Africa earlier this year. He’s a homegrown talent from the Cape and we want to see that he grows his game and becomes an asset for WP in the future,” Nackerdien stated.
On the batting front, WP have signed former Warriors opening batsman Eddie Moore who Nackerdien believes has some of his best performances ahead of him, as the 29-year-old, with over 7,000 first-class runs in 102 first-class matches, looks for a new challenge down in the Cape.
“Eddie will be a great asset to our batting line-up, I think that there is still a lot that he wants to achieve and I’m looking forward to working with him in the coming season here at Six Gun Grill Western Province.”
Moore will join the likes of Proteas batsman Kyle Verreynne, Yaseen Vallie, Jono Bird, Tony de Zorzi, Daniel Smith and Gavin Kaplan in the batting line-up. Kaplan and leg-spinner Junaid Dawood, who both had break-out seasons last season, have been awarded high-performance contracts.
“Gavin and Junaid, with their performances last season, earned themselves high-performance contracts – both are fantastic talents and I think with their added presence as part of the squad, it means that overall, we’ve got a fantastic group to work with this season and I trust that we can bring a trophy or two back to Newlands this coming season,” Nackerdien concluded.
WP CEO Michael Canterbury wished coach Nackerdien and his assembled squad well for the season ahead.
“We have worked hard to sign the players we wanted to bolster our squad and we are confident that we can compete for every trophy on offer this season. We are behind Salieg and his squad all the way.”
The Six Gun Grill WP Management team will be confirmed in the coming days.
Six Gun Grill WP Contracted Squad: Aviwe Mgijima, Beuran Hendricks, Dane Paterson, Daniel Smith, Eddie Moore, Ethan Cunningham, George Linde, Jonathan Bird, Kyle Simmonds, Kyle Verreynne, Mihlali Mpongwana, Nandre Burger, Tony de Zorzi, Tshepo Moreki, Wayne Parnell, Yaseen Vallie
High Performance Contracts: Gavin Kaplan, Junaid Dawood
