At the crease: Sam Ahmet strikes the ball for Central Park-St Brendan’s.
The bedrock of a good cricket team is its opening batter and for Central Park-St Brendan’s that man was once Sam Ahmet.
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Playing a key role in the club’s famous spell of seven premierships in a row from 2004-05 to 2010-11, the talented right-hander made plenty of runs, on a journey that formed lifelong bonds.
“When I first started playing A-grade for Central Park we used to make a lot of grand finals, but we used to lose them,” Ahmet said.
“And then when Rohan Larkin came that was when it all started, the dynasty started there.
“It was pretty good, really good actually, we won one a little bit earlier in 1999-2000 which broke the drought and then we had a run of seven in a row.”
Opening the batting, Ahmet made an average of 25.42 a game in the 1999-2000 premiership season, upping it to 32 for the club’s next premiership in 2004-05 and a whopping 74.57 for the 2005-06 season.
A score of 251 not out against Katandra in February 2006 was the highlight of this campaign, with a number of other exciting spells showing how much of a key role Ahmet played in the team.
“We worked hard, but we had a really talented list as well and we got along really good, we were all pretty close as a playing group,” he said.
“We always looked forward to turning up on a Saturday when there was a game on and when there was functions on we had a pretty good laugh.
“I had some good memories with that group, we still stay in contact now even though most of us are finished.”
Eyes on the ball: Sam Ahmet takes aim.
Making his A-grade debut as a 16-year-old in 1990, Ahmet said a grand final loss to Karramomus in 2012-13 marked the end of his A-grade career.
Almost a one club player, Ahmet did make the journey down the Hume Hwy to Melbourne for one season, plying his trade alongside Rohan Larkin and Bryan Doyle at Carlton.
“We (Cricket Shepparton) won Melbourne Country Week, so I was involved with that and had a good week and had an invite to go to Carlton,” he said.
“I was travelling from Shepp to play there, I didn’t actually live in Melbourne.
“I wasn’t a city person, I thought I’d give it a go and it didn’t work out.”
Labelling his selection in Cricket Shepparton’s 30-person Team of the Century squad as a “huge honour”, Ahmet said he was lucky enough to play in one of the region’s best cricketing eras.
“I had the opportunity to play in Vic Country and got picked for Australia Country.” he said.
“So if you were going to say individual stuff that’s it, but the team side of things, the bond we had at Central Park and some of the great players you played with and against, it was a really good time to be playing cricket in the time I was playing I reckon."
