Draft:Point Cook Centrals Cricket Club

Point Cook Centrals Cricket Club is a community cricket club based in the western Melbourne suburb of Point Cook. Known as "The Sharks", the club operates mainly out of Featherbrook Reserve in the heart of Point Cook.

History
Established in 2012 as Sanctuary Lakes Cricket Club, the club was founded by life members Paul Pritchard and Wade Britnell along with the football club. Between 2012 and 2015 the club only offered junior cricket before entering its first senior team in the fourth division of the Western Suburbs Community & Churches Cricket Association (WSCCCA) synthetic competition ahead of the 2015/16 season. The club won the premiership in that first senior season with a dominant performance against St Andrews in the grand final.

The following season having been promoted to the WSCCCA third division, the club entered its Second Eleven into the fifth division of the WSCCCA. The First Eleven were defeated by Manor Lakes in their grand final while the Second Eleven won the fifth division premiership.

The 2017/18 season saw the introduction of the clubs first all girls teams with an Under 15 Girls team in the North-West Metro Cricket Association (NWMCA) and an Under 13 Girls team in the Western Region Junior Cricket Association (WRJCA) with the Under 15 team winning their premiership.

Ahead of the 2019/20 season, the club successfully had their bid passed to remove the synthetic pitch at Featherbrook Reserve and have it turned into a turf pitch square. This meant that they were able to enter Division Five of the Victorian Turf Cricket Association (VTCA) and enter their First and Second Elevens into a turf competition for the first time, while adding their Third Eleven into the sixth division of the WSCCCA. The development of the turf wicket at Featherbrook meant that the turf sides had to only play away games for the season. This season also saw the Under 16 Girls team win back-to-back premierships.

The following year, the club's turf sides were granted permission to use Wyndhamvale's old turf ground for home games after their full move to their new facility just across the road had been completed.

In the 2021/22 season, the turf wicket at Featherbrook had been completed so the club's two turf sides were able to finally play their home games there. This also saw the introduction of the club's Under 18s turf team in the VTCA Under 18 turf competition and the addition of a Fourth Eleven into the WSCCCA. The Under 18 turf team took out their premiership at Featherbrook Reserve and the Second Eleven only lost two games in the regular season before winning the three-game grand final series (due to COVID-19 rules) 2-1 against Melton South in a thrilling game three win at Featherbrook.

For the 2022/23 season, the club moved its Third and Fourth Elevens to the NWMCA synthetic competition as well as entering its first ever standalone women's sides into the first and fourth divisions of the NWMCA's women's competition after a few years of combined teams with multiple different clubs. This season proved very successful for the Sharks with the Second Eleven winning back-to-back premierships at home, defeating Footscray Angliss, the Third Eleven winning a nail-biting premiership at their Alamanda Reserve home ground against Greenvale and the Under 16 Girls winning their premiership in a tight battle against close rivals Werribee. Midway through the summer, the club launched its highly successful Shark Academy, aimed at children aged 6-11 with the goal of bridging the gap from Cricket Australia-run program Woolworths Cricket Blast to playing competitive club cricket.

At the 2023 club presentation evening, the club held an EGM proposing a change to their name from Sanctuary Lakes Cricket Club to Point Cook Centrals Cricket Club which was unanimously voted for.

Prior to the 2023/24 season, the club were a late addition to the VTCA's Division Four after Williamstown Congs dropped out, thus a fitting result of the success of the previous year. This season also saw the Fourth Eleven move back to the WSCCCA, the club enter its women's First Eleven into the Cricket Victoria Women's Community Cricket competition to play on turf and the return of its Under 18 VTCA turf team. The women's Second Eleven suffered a close loss in their grand final in a thrilling game against Bellbridge.

Current Teams
The club currently fields four senior men's sides (two on turf in the VTCA, one on synthetic in the NWMCA and one on synthetic in the WSCCCA), two senior women's sides (one on turf in the CV Women's Community and one on synthetic in the NWMCA), one Under 18 team in the VTCA Under 18 competition and fifteen junior sides in the WRJCA including four all girls junior teams.