Last weekend Footscray Angliss Cricket Club celebrated a 40 plus year stalwart when Spiros Koziaris played his 450th game of cricket.
Koziaris never would have thought he would one day be at this point, given he only first went there as 14-year-old in 1980, when a friend said they were a few players short.
Fast forward to 2023, he is now the treasurer of the club and played the most games of anyone in its history.
Once a small club in the western suburbs of Melbourne in Yarraville, a place with a strong Greek history, Footscray Angliss Cricket Club has now grown from two teams to six senior teams, six junior teams and more programs for the youth.
From at the most 30 members to now a couple of hundred, Koziaris has played a major role with his off-field involvement since he was 18.
Had you told him at 14, or his parents for that matter, that he would play 450 games of cricket they would have been in for the shock of their lives.
Traditionally cricket isn’t a sport played by much Greeks, now that has changed a bit, but back then no.
While other migrant parents may have not wanted their kids to play this ‘foreign’ sport (to them) his were ok with it.
“It’s probably not something that they thought I’d be involved in but my mum and dad never said you’re not doing it,” Koziaris tells Neos Kosmos.
“I’ve heard of other people whose parents said ‘no way, you’re not playing cricket’, but they were more than happy for me to play.”
He also shares that it was much different back in the day with parents supporting their kids’ extra-curricular activities, or even getting involved at club level like coaching.
“They weren’t like the parents nowadays who take their kids to cricket, but we were lucky that other people offered us lifts – if we got to the main ground, we had people to transport us around.
“Unlike now where nearly every parent takes their young child to the cricket game, it was sort of left to club members to do it on behalf of a lot of the immigrants’ kids at the time.
“Back in those days, if there was something you want to do, good luck, you find your way there.”
While he was aware that the 450-game milestone was close because the club historian keeps track of everything, he wasn’t aware on the day.
The club has surprised him, with everyone wearing “embarrassing” t-shirts with his picture on them.
An even bigger surprise was to hear a familiar tune sung out loud, a song in his namesake – the “Spiros song”.
Back in the day, this song was sung all the time at his games, and his old group of friends even sang it at his wedding to the shock of his parents. They turned up for the newest occasion and sung it, normally to Koziaris’ dismay and embarrassment, but this time a happy surprise.
Playing cricket for the club has become a real family affair, Koziaris sister helps out, his wife Olympia is involved and even his two brothers played for the club.
His brother John was convinced to come out of retirement to play on the special day.
But the most special family connection cricket has for Koziaris, is the one with his son Billy.
“My son Billy is probably the main reason why I’m still playing.”
“He would come and watch us from four or five years old and at six, he said ‘dad I want to play’ and I said ‘you’re a bit young to play under 11s at six, but he was just adamant it was something he wanted to do.”
Billy then kept pushing to one day play with his dad too, so they made an agreement.
“I told him once he turned 12 that we could play some senior cricket together if there was a vacancy, so got me to sign some kind of contract that I would continue playing until he turned 12 so we could play together.”
They spent a couple of years playing together, and that was the motivation for Koziaris to continue into his 30s and 40s.
Billy has now passed his dad and plays at higher levels but they still train together.
After his son the biggest reason he continues to play is mateship, still playing with a friend from 40 odd years ago and others for 30 years.
“It’s great for mental health as well as physical health, just having different people you can speak to and it’s also nice to come to the club and have a bit of fun and muck around,” he said.
“When you’ve had a busy day at work, there’s no better feeling than coming to a game or training and just having a good laugh.”
