The passing of Valley great Kevin Gardiner

We are sad to advise the passing of Moonee Valley Cricket Club Life Member and inaugural Hall of Fame inductee Kevin Gardiner.
Kevin, 66, had been ill for some time and passed away on the morning of July 9. Kevin and Virginia have three sons Terry, John and Leo. All played junior cricket at Moonee Valley and each had a taste of senior cricket with our club.
Juniors were Kevin's passion and he served seven years as our Junior Co-ordinator and another six years on the general committee, finishing up in 2018/19.
At right: Kevin Gardiner and wife Virginia at the 2026 Hall of Fame presentation, with son Terry.
He then coached our Under 10s for multiple seasons and had further junior involvement running our Milo Have A Go/Blast programs.
A two-time Premiership player, Kevin was presented our Lindsay Jones Best Clubman award in 2006/07.
He won seven bowling awards in his 233-game career spanning 1975 to 2025, scoring 1190 runs and taking 269 wickets.
But Kevin's profound contribution to the Moonee Valley Cricket Club over six decades goes well past his onfield exploits.
He was willing to take on any task that needed doing, and in more recent years took on the role of ordering, collecting and distributing the match balls for every senior and junior team.
Kevin was universally admired and respected by players of all grades at our club, as well as juniors and their parents for his genuine interest and involvement in everyone and everything.
He always had a good word for anyone who pulled on a Moonee Valley cap and enjoyed mixing socially with them.
Kevin was one of our four inaugural inductees to the Moonee Valley Hall of Fame along with Darren Nagle, Ian Denny and Mark Gauci, and revelled in the function where they were presented with their plaques at a gala event in the Ormond Park pavilion on February 7 this year.
Each of the inductees was interviewed in a Q&A on the stage by a significant fellow member of the club who impacted their career - Kevin by Bill Nagel.
Kevin's cricket career began when he followed his older brother Peter down to Moonee Valley - the late PG is also a Life Member of our club.
Kevin, you have made a profound impact on the Moonee Valley Cricket Club, and we mourn your passing. Details of funeral arrangements will be posted when finalised.


Notice: Moonee Valley Cricket Club AGM

The Annual General Meeting of the Moonee Valley Cricket Club Inc. is being held at 7.15pm on Monday, July 20.
The AGM will be held at the premises of our valued sponsor, the Moonee Ponds Club, 622 Mt Alexander Rd, Moonee Ponds.
There are several positions open on the committee including general committee members. Members are also able to lodge a nomination for an executive position or any other position listed in our Constitution.
Please consider nominating yourself or another member for these positions. Nominations, and any items of Special Business, should be forwarded to Secretary Sarah Fenn at [email protected]

MVCC AGM
Monday, 20 July. 7.15pm
Once items and nominations are submitted the agenda for the meeting will be distributed, as well as the minutes from last year's AGM.
Cheers,
Charlie Walker
President, Moonee Valley Cricket Club

TEAMS HONORING NIGEL COWAN

The winter comp teams of Moonee Valley and Barkly Street Uniting got together during our Round 7 game on July 4 to honor the passing of Nigel Cowan, who had an association with both clubs.
Nigel was a member of Moonee Valley's Executive as Secretary in 2018/19, after serving on the general committee in the previous season. His son Nigel Junior, now using the preferred name Ashley, played 46 games for Moonee Valley across both winter and summer seasons, commencing in 2017.
Nigel Snr had a vast knowledge of cricket, having umpired in the Victorian Turf Cricket Association across many seasons and spending time as the VTCA Umpires' Adviser.
Even after Ashley moved on to other clubs, Nigel Snr stayed in touch with Moonee Valley and closely followed our fortunes. He passed away in March.
Ashley, currently in Vietnam, was made aware of the event by both clubs to honor his father, and expressed his appreciation through his close friend Andreas Skiotis, who is a member of our Moonee Valley Committee.

Moonee Valley appoints our new coach

Moonee Valley Cricket Club has appointed New Zealander Sakthi (Shak) Prasad as our new coach, and we welcome him to our club.
Shak was appointed after last season's coach Brayden McGregor stood down due to work commitments. Brayden continues as a player.
Shak holds a Level 3 ICC coaching qualification as well as Level 1 and 2 Australian coaching certificates. As well as coaching our senior teams, he is keen to have a close involvement with our junior program.
Here's his first message to our club:
Hi everyone, it’s great to be joining the club and I’m looking forward to meeting you all soon.
Cricket is my passion and I’ve played my whole life beginning in Chennai India, where I used a piece of wood and a rubber ball for street cricket. I just wanted to play.
I took the coaching side more seriously when I did my Australia Level 1 and 2 around 2018 and was invited to Dubai to complete my ICC Level 3 in 2019. I am also a NZ cricket umpire. Continuing to learn and update my skills is really important to me as it will benefit players.
I’ve been based in New Zealand for the past 5 years, where I set up my own coaching business. One student was picked up for the under 19’s international Samoan team and others have been fast tracked into the Cricket Wellington Pathway Program.
I bring an holistic approach to my coaching as I believe that technical ability and mindset go together. I have a Masters in Social Work and a Degree in Drug and Alcohol Studies and these complement the on-field components.
I bring experience coaching men and women in both a team and one on one format and love to see players having fun and being stretched to reach their peak performance.  My coaching style is very calm and casual and my experience enables me to quickly see how to make player improvements.
My expectation is to see everyone enjoy the game and use me to help enhance individual and team capability across the club. Also, training smarter is something that I hope everyone will be on board with and making sure that everyone is aware that they can just come and have a chat with me anytime.
From a training perspective I want ensure everyone is clear on our goals and have an open forum where you can be heard, and know that your individual talent will be recognised when you play.
A little about me - everyone calls me Shak, I love what I do, am a team player, very social, into fitness, and I love to score runs and take wickets (44 was my highest recently in a season). Being a great role model is important to me and as I want to keep cricket alive and thriving.

 Our cricket girls answer the football call

The Moonee Valley Football Club women's reserves knew they were going to be short of numbers for their game on June 27, so Tara Newman put out the call to her cricket colleagues.
And four of our girls answered the call - Yasmin King, Kylie Russo, Maddie Dutton Johnson and Sarah Fenn pulled on the boots for the Fog.
At left: Showing their cricket allegiance with the bat - L-R Sarah Fenn, Yasmin King, Kylie Russo and Maddie Dutton Johnson.
Aberfeldie won the game but our four certainly impressed - they have a standing invitation from the football club to keep playing.
Yasmin and Kylie were listed in the Valley's best players for the match.
Answering the call for numbers further reinforced the strong relationship between our clubs.
And while she didn't pull on the boots, our cricketing colleague Sandra Verschoor came to the game to cheer on her mates.

*CRICKET - COME PLAY AT THE VALLEY  

Moonee Valley Cricket Club is always keen to talk to potential new players for our Saturday and Sunday turf teams, our Saturday men's hard-wicket team, our Sunday women's team and junior teams at all levels.
Anyone interested in joining Moonee Valley can phone senior coach Brayden McGregor on 0429 559 797, junior co-ordinator Paul Sevenson on 0407 556 950 or President Charlie Walker on 0411 705 381. Anyone wanting information can also email us at [email protected]

Main Club contact details:

* Charlie Walker - President 0411 705 381; 9370 1802
* Allan Cumming - Treasurer 0438 380 990
* Sarah Fenn - Secretary 0438 141 179
* Mark Gauci - Vice President 0457 778 335 
* Paul Sevenson - Junior Co-ordinator - 0407 556 950   

Emails: [email protected]
        [email protected] 

For more contacts, see " Office bearers & Officials " under "Club News & Info" at the top of the page

Last updated : July 9, 2026.
For more of our history, including our Premierships, click HERE