Thomas Cooper and Jake Lee are important players for Melton South Primary School Cricket Club.
They don’t score the most runs or take bags of wickets, but sometimes cricket is about more than statistics.
When the boys, who have special needs, became too old to continue in the junior age groups for the 2015-16 season, it looked as though they might have to stop playing with the club.
Royals treasurer Chris Pleitner had other ideas.
The club formed a team to play in the Western Suburbs Churches and Community Cricket Association’s D-grade competition.
This season, the side is playing in F grade.
“Tommy has been with us for quite a number of years, since under-14s,” Pleitner said. “I coached him then. Jake came across two or three years ago. I got to know them really well. I’d decided I’d finished playing cricket, but I wanted these boys to continue to play. I will continue to play so they can play.”
Last season, the Royals had five players with special needs in the side after an umpire who heard about the team got his son and a couple of his friends involved, too.
This season there are three players with special needs: Cooper, Lee and Aiden McDonald (who also played last season).
Pleitner says most teams are understanding of what they’re trying to do.
“We always try to give them a bat and bowl,” he said. “We’ll switch it around so they all get an equal shot at both. Some of the other teams will slow it down and they’ll bring on their kids to bat and bowl.”
Pleitner says it’s pure enjoyment for the rest of the team watching the boys play cricket.
All three take turns going out to the toss of the coin. “Tommy took a catch the other week and Tommy doesn’t take too many catches,” Pleitner said. “It was the best thing for him. Jake almost took a couple of wickets. Both are just so excited and happy. They just want to play cricket.”
The three youngsters have their own personal competitions – who can take the most wickets or make the most runs – and they also get involved with the club’s social events.
Saturday’s Pink Stumps day was especially special for Cooper, whose mum is battling cancer.
Pleitner, who is senior vice-president of the WSCCCA, said he would love to see more sides take a similar approach.
Specifically, he would love to see a connection made with the local specialist school.
“The association has really supported it. Wyndham has an all-abilities competition which runs every two to three weeks, but we’d love to have a weekly competition within the association, with teams that have some special-needs players in them. They don’t want to be singled out. They just want to play cricket with everyone else.”
