Western Warriors
The Western Warriors (referred to as Retravison Warriors for sponsorship reasons) are an Australian first class cricket team based in Perth, Western Australia. Its home ground is the WACA Ground.
The team represents the state of Western Australia in the Australian first class competition - the Pura Cup (formerly known as the Sheffield Shield), the limited overs Ford Ranger Cup and the KFC Twenty20 Big Bash.
For the 2007/08 season, The Warriors were captained by Marcus North, who took over from Justin Langer. He had experience captaining the side during the 2006/-7 season whilst Langer was away with the National Side. Adam Voges is North's vice-captain. Other notable members of the squad are Adam Gilchrist, Adam Voges, Ben Edmondson, Brad Hogg, Brett Dorey, Chris Rogers, Luke Ronchi, Sean Ervine, Shaun Marsh and Steve Magoffin.
On 14 May 2007, the WACA announced the appointment of Tom Moody as Warriors manager and head coach for the next three years. Trevor Penney, England's fielding coach during the 2005 Ashes series and assistant to Moody in Sri Lanka will join as Moody's assistant coach.
The previous coach and cricket manager was Wayne Clark.
A number of cricketers have left their mark in the Australian cricket team whilst playing for Western Australia including: Dennis Lillee, Adam Gilchrist, Kim Hughes, John Inverarity, Brendon Julian, Simon Katich, Justin Langer, Terry Alderman, Geoff Marsh, Rod Marsh, Damien Martyn, Bob Massie, Tom Moody, Mike Hussey, Bob Simpson and Graeme Wood. Hughes, Geoff Marsh, Gilchrist and Hussey have all captained the national team whilst playing for WA.
Team History
Since joining the Sheffield Shield in 1947/48, Western Australia has won the competition 15 times, second only to New South Wales. In the one-day Ford Ranger Cup competition, the team leads the winners table comfortably with 11 wins followed by New South Wales with 8 wins.
In 1994, WACA Chief Executive Officer Chris Smith commissioned a survey of schoolchildren into the comparative popularity and recognition of state cricketers compared with AFL stars of the West Coast Eagles and basketballers from the Perth Wildcats. 90% recognised AFL names, 75% recognised basketballers, but only 30% recognised state cricketer's names. Smith embarked on a concerted campaign to improve the penetration of cricket into the school system as well as marketing the team more widely. As part of the marketing strategy, the Western Warriors brand was launched officially for the start of the 1996-97 season, following the similar launch of the 'Queensland Bulls' a couple of years earlier.
