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Moonee Valley has welcomed former Ranji Trophy player Surender Dayma from India for the second part of our VTCA season.
Surender played four games for Delhi in the Ranji Trophy - India's equivalent of Sheffield Shield - with the likes of One Day International opening bowler Ashish Nehra and current Indian Test openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir.
Moonee Valley is grateful that Surender's employer, the Standard Chartered Bank North India Branch, has granted him extra leave to come to Australia and represent our Club.
Surender (centre) is pictured here with Moonee Valley captain Mark Gauci (left) and chairman of selectors Amit Chaudhary.
For more on Surender and his career, see the item in our News pages. 

Moonee Valley cricketers Clare Ardern and Tien Ha had been due to represent our club on the MCG on Day 4 of the Boxing Day Test.

However, due to the early demise of the Aussies, they missed out on their big chance.

Clare, the captain of our women's team, and Tien, a past captain and team administrator, were to compete against representives of seven other clubs in a 400 metre dash and a sprint during the tea break. However, the match was finished before then and the crowd had all gone home.

Both Clare (at far right) and Tien have played in the men's teams at Moonee Valley as well as with our women's team, and are more than capable as cricketers.

If they won the Club Cricket Challenge, Clare and Tien were going to win $1000 for Moonee Valley plus a bat autographed by the Australian squad for the Vodaphone Ashes Series. However, Cricket Victoria will try to reschedule the challenge for a Twenty20 match or one-day game at the MCG.

We wanted our supporters at the MCG for Day 4 of the Test to cheer on Clare and Tien at the tea break. However, hopefully they'll still get their chance to perform on one of the great arenas of world sport.

Christmas Cheer at Moonee Valley 

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And a farewell to Ihtsi - going home

Moonee Valley has said farewell to cricket import, Ihtisham Uddin, who was on a time-limited visa and has had to return to Pakistan.

Ihtsi was prepared to come out to Moonee Valley and demonstrate his skill as a batsman and bowler for half a season, but sadly was not able to extend his visa.

Joining with Ihtisham (above) are our champion Arosha Perera (left) and chairman of selectors Amit Chaudhary (right).

Captain Mark Gauci said Ihtisham showed great ability in his six fixture games and three Twenty20 matches, and Moonee Valley will strongly consider getting him back for a full year next season.

Main Club contact details:
Peter Golding - Club Secretary 0419 009 721
Charlie Walker - President 0409 237 543; 9370 1802
Kevin Gardiner - Junior Co-ordinator 0417 536 896

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For more contacts, see "Office bearers & Officials" under "Club News & Info" at the top of the page.
(email: - mooneev@club.cricketvictoria.com.au) 
Our website: http://archive.mooneevalleycricket.com.au