By Tyler Lewis
The worst kept secret in local cricket is official.
Jake Hancock will play for Dandenong District Cricket Association (DDCA) club Berwick in season 2022/23.
In fact, Hancock will pull on the familiar navy blue in ‘23/24 too, as he has inked a deal to keep him at Arch Brown Reserve for two seasons as the club’s batting coach.
Hancock, 30, played five First-Class matches for Tasmania and accumulated 4761 Vic Premier Cricket runs @ 31 over a 168-match career with Carlton – and more recently – Prahran.
Hancock captained Prahran in season 2021/22 and was extraordinarily consistent, scoring 500 runs @ 41 with four half-centuries, and more impressively, recording just two scores below double-figures – both coming after round 13.
Berwick Cricket Club president Andrew Moore revealed just how excited his club is to see Hancock pull on the Bears’ threads.
“It’s huge mate,” he said.
“From the coaching side of things Jake brings a pretty good pedigree, he is going to take on the batting coach role.
“He is a proven cricketer and is a really nice fella, he is keen to dip his toes into coaching and it’s big for us for sure.
“I think coaching seems to be a fairly big thing now for him, so we sat down and had some meetings and away we went.”
As for what Moore is expecting from Hancock on the field, it’s not a weight of runs, it’s not a Turf 1 premiership, it’s far simpler than that.
“I think we’re expecting some stability to our batting group,” he said.
“Something for the boys to learn from, about how a guy goes about preparing himself to play cricket each week.
“Stability is the biggest thing though I think, he will sure up our middle order.”
