On Saturday evening, Optimists Cricket Club hosted their annual awards dinner at the Hotel Parc-Belair. The guest speaker was England cricket legend, Monty Panesar.
Following a short welcome speech from Optimists CC Vice-Chairman, Tim Andrews, guests enjoyed the delicious three course meal before the awards were presented.
The winners were as follows and were presented with their trophy by Monty Panesar.
Best Batsman: Ed Packard
Best Bowler: Pankaj Malav
Best All-rounder: Ed Packard
Best fielder: Yama Abdiani
Best performance: Asgar Barkat
Clubman of the Year: Graham Cope
New Member: Ben McIlroy & Andries Venter
Monty Panesar then hosted a Q&A sessions where guests had the opportunity to ask a question. Monty spoke very eloquently and went into great detail on a variety of topics including playing for England the pressures of this as well as the importance of women’s and juniors cricket and also spoke about racism in cricket and sport as a whole and what can be done to eradicate this.
It was a fantastic evening and members had the opportunity to speak to Monty after and take phots/get his autograph.
Optimists Cricket Club would also like to thank the generous sponsorship for the evening from Carne Group and JTC.