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 Valley girls take out the awards

                

Above: Celebrating the season and the awards: L-R captain Sarah Fenn with Kylie Russo and Fiona Bathie
and their comp-wide trophies.
Two key players in the  Moonee Valley Women's team took out top awards at the North West Metropolitan Cricket Association Presentation Night on April 17.
With our team promoted to the top grade Geoff Law Shield, wicketkeeper/batter Fiona Bathie won the keeper's award with eight catches and three stumpings, as well as being involved in four runouts.
Fiona also came runner-up in the batting award, with 346 runs @ 86.5.
Kylie Russo won the bowling award with 16 wickets @ 11.38.
Kylie's 16 wickets was the best season's tally ever at the Moonee Valley Cricket Club, beating the 15 wickets taken by Nicole McLachlan in 2008/09.

*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: June 25, 2026.
For more of our history, including our Premierships, click HERE