Tom Hayes
LAST year, Maffra’s Kevin Lanigan led the Victorian Veteran Over 70 side to glory in Division 1 of the Veteran National Cricket Championships.
This was just another accolade to add to Lanigan’s portfolio, as he continues to have a love for the game he began playing 60 years ago.
Lanigan started playing cricket at the age of 12, back in 1963, at St Pat’s College – which is now known as Sale Catholic College.
He played so often that during his first season, he commenced afternoon cricket with the Tinamba Cricket Club on top of his commitments.
During his career, Lanigan has represented Sale-Maffra at countless Country Weeks, and is also a life member of the Maffra Cricket Club and Sale-Maffra Cricket Association.
Sixty years later, he is touring Australia and the rest of the world, playing cricket for Victorian and Australian veteran sides.
He hasn’t forgotten his roots however, as he is still a part of the Maffra Cricket Club, featuring in the side that won the SMCA Division 2 Fourths premiership last season, scoring 27 runs in the Grand Final at the age of 71.
Not only is he a part of these squads, but he has played the important role of captain on more than a dozen occasions.
He captained the Victoria Over 60s four times and has now captained the Victorian Over 70s a total of 10 times.
Most famously, Lanigan captained the Victoria Country side that played a New Zealand outfit in Traralgon during their 1980 tour of Australia.
Who was the captain of the New Zealand side? None other than Sir Richard Hadlee, who was leading the Kiwis for the first time in his career.
Returning to the Veteran National Cricket Championships, Lanigan was one of three Gippsland Goannas (the local veterans team) in the Over 70s squad that he captained.
Lining up alongside him was Ian Gibson, who was vice-captain, and Ian Southall, who has also toured England and the UK with the Australian veterans side.
It was seemingly a walk in the park for the Victoria Over 70s, who cruised to the championship, and Lanigan could not have been anymore prouder.
“When you win by nine wickets, 106 runs and (then) eight wickets in the final, it’s sort of unbelievable, everything we touched turned to gold. Everything we tried or were planning to do – it just happened,” he said.
Lanigan said when it comes to captaining a veteran’s side, there isn’t a whole lot of things to do besides the coin toss, setting the field, changing the bowlers and setting a batting order.
“The thing is, they had all played heaps of cricket, all very experienced backgrounds in cricket to be still playing at 70,” he said.
The championship win completed a redemption arc for the Victorian side, who believe they should have won the 2022 Championships, falling to Queensland by a wicket in the Grand Final after entering favourites.
“Last year we lost the Grand Final, we had won our rounds the previous year (2022). I think there was about eight of us that were in the losing Grand Final where Queensland beat us by one wicket. We went in as favourites, so that was disappointing,” Lanigan said.
“We had a mindset that we had to make amends for the previous year, because we had a group of people that should’ve been winning.
“We lost one game by one wicket in two years, we shouldn’t have lost (in 2022), we had a bad day. So we wanted to win pretty badly.”
Following the win, celebrations were had, and they didn’t differ too far from how they used to roll.
“Some still think we should celebrate, and they do have a championship dinner on the night of the last game, which usually has about 350 at it,” Lanigan said.
“Rodney Hogg was the guest speaker, and they present the shields and everything like that.
“So, a good group of Victorians were there, and yes, we celebrated. Not so much beer, but quite a bit of red wine!”
Following his most-recent success, Lanigan is keen to do it all over again at the end of 2024, when the Veteran National Cricket Championships head to Dubbo.
“The spirit is willing, but the body is tiring. But I would like to, it’s in Dubbo this November, and hopefully I can hold together long enough to go again then,” he said.
Lanigan had the chance to play for the Victorian Over 70s again in South Australia this March but had to opt out due to a family commitment.
Due to his absence, Gibson has stepped up as captain, and Lanigan believes the next time he could represent Victoria will be in Dubbo later this year.
Lanigan will however step back into the captaincy, this time on a national scale, when he leads Australia at the inaugural Over 70s World Cup in the UK this winter.
Southall is also in the squad to tour the UK from late July to mid-August.
It is never too late to play international cricket.
