The other five teams have the target fixated squarely on Pukekohe Metro after their historic 2020-21 season but that sits well with them according to a senior player.
Pukekohe Metro won the title in all three formats of the game in Counties Manukau Cricket last summer while they also took out the Spark Regional Competition that involves teams from Counties Manukau, Hamilton and Waikato Valley.
That has prompted their local rivals to focus on wrestling away those titles this year, but spinner Kurt Barnes welcomes the challenge.
“Yeah, yeah, it’s not too out of the regular,” Barnes told Counties Sports Hub. “People tend to love beating us. If we just concentrate on what we’re doing and playing our game, we should be all right.
“It is pretty much the same team [this season]. Maybe we get a little bit better with Popli [Northern Districts first class batsman Bharat Popli] coming back after Christmas and a new coach so if we play our game we should be fine here.”
The new coach is former Northern Districts and New Zealand all-rounder Anton Devcich, who has been stuck in Hamilton until now thanks to the COVID restrictions.
But with the border opening up this week Barnes and his teammates will finally get to train with Devcich in person.
Barnes said what they have been able to do has been over the phone and that has even been limited.
“Not a great deal to be honest; we couldn’t do much,” Barnes added. “I think he’s talked to obviously Harry Chhagan [club president] and Scruffy [skipper Cameron Hardwick] a little bit so we’ve got them coming to training tonight to meet everyone and run the training.
“I think he’ll play a big part after Christmas and just a little bit of the technical stuff. We have got a lot of young guys that will really benefit from it.”
Pukekohe Metro beat Southern Counties in the Duthie Cup opener last weekend and face Weymouth at Mountfort Park on Saturday.
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