ASHTON Cricket Club first team captain Dan Hawthorne believes it underestimated the difficulty of attaining back-to-back promotions last season.
Now the focus is on challenging to go up again in 2024.
The Rayner Lane outfit enjoyed a promising campaign in Division Three of the Greater Manchester League, but ultimately fell just short in certain areas of the pitch.
Specifically, the lack of a consistent batsman and effective strike bowler were identified as the key reasons behind the team’s failure to achieve promotion and deliver silverware in the T20 final.
However, the club has made efforts in recent weeks to rectify the problems with two key players putting pen to paper.
Having benefitted hugely from Sri Lankan players in previous years, the club has once again turned to the expertise of South Asian prospects just four months before the season commences.
Pathum Madusanka and Muhammed Zubair will bolster the ranks and, as Dan puts it, bring their own specific strengths to the Ashton line-up.
Speaking to The Correspondent, he said: “We are extremely pleased to have signed Pathum.
“He averages more than 30 in the first class game and bowls off spin. We see him not only replacing Ruman but also giving us real strength at the top of the order.
“Zubair, an opening bowler, is no stranger at Rayner Lane as he played for us in 2016 and had a key role in helping the club to the Tanner Cup Final. Since then, he has been at Crompton – winners of that final – in the Lancashire League.”
Excitement also surrounds the permanent arrival of Ramis Mustafa, a 24-year-old Pakistani who featured in the T20 Final last season.
Having relocated to the country on a permanent basis, the hard-hitting batsman, who was unable to play on Saturdays, will bring much-needed power to the crease throughout the 2024 season.
Given the team’s strength in depth, it is no surprise that Dan, who follows Ashton United home and away, is targeting promotion in the Greater Manchester Division Four.
He added: “After such a successful season in 2022 we perhaps underestimated the qualities needed to make it a second successive promotion. Games were a lot tighter and we fell short in the end”
“2023 showed us that we were probably short of another consistent batsman and a strike bowler. Ruman Ahmed, who has made more than 2,000 runs for us in the last two years, has relocated down south meaning that it has been vital to strengthen our batting line-up.
“I am thrilled that both Khan and Mustafa have joined us for next year. They provide the ideal skills and abilities that we have been looking for to give us that added strength for a promotion push. I’m really looking forward to the season”.
As The Correspondent reported recently, the club has been making strides to improve off the pitch as well. Using the funds generated from hosting The Fields of Gold Festival in September, Ashton have renovated the square, vertidrained the outfield and treated the surface in general.
Its partnership with the festival organisers is set to continue for a fourth year as the two-day spectacle returns to Rayner Lane in September 2024.
Fixtures for the 2024 season were released recently, and Ashton will face Rochdalians in their opening day encounter on Saturday, April 20.