INTRODUCTION:
Fleetwood Cricket Club were the surprise package of the 2012 Northern League, where they ended up as League champions after a succesful campaign. The win was further boosted by their Twenty-20 Finals Day success and were close to winning the treble only just falling to Kendal in The Readers Cup Final.
For the new season their squad remains relatively unchanged, however they quickly replaced last season pro Shaun Leibisch with Australian all rounder Ian Holland, leaving them with a pretty dangerous team for 2013.
Fleetwood will be captained by Mat Clark for another season after the success of 2012
Captains View
"As the 2013 season approaches, we at Fleetwood are currently working hard indoors in anticipation of what should be a fascinating season for us....
Having been the surprise package of 2012 we are under no illusions how difficult this year will be for us.
We are fully aware that we are now the team that everyone wants to beat and of just how difficult retaining our title will be.
This is backed up by the stats that only 1 team has managed to do that this century(correct me if I'm wrong).....
On the playing front we are glad to report that at present nobody has expressed a desire to play elsewhere or retire, which is really important for the stability of the cricket side of things..
As a captain I'm constantly looking at areas where we can improve right across the board and this is the message we are sending to the boys. If we stand still we will go backwards so we must work harder in all areas of our own game to help the collective remain successful.
We believe we've made an excellent signing in Ian Holland and hope that if he can adapt to the English conditions quickly enough then we can again be challenging for honors on all fronts"
