Pete Bowman has been appointed Cricket Wanganui's general manager. Photo / Supplied
Pete Bowman has been appointed Cricket Wanganui's general manager. Photo / Supplied
After weeks of scorching dry sun, Cricket Wanganui's new general manager Pete Bowman was greeted by a soaked Tasman Tanning (Victoria) Park on his first Saturday in charge.
But after a stretch in MIQ with his wife and three young sons, Bowman was just happy to be in Whanganui andsaid it "feels right" as he took inventory of his new association.
A native of Australia's coal-mining capital Newcastle, Bowman spent 20 years in Canberra and turned his love of cricket into a full-time career.
With experience in sports co-ordination and public service, Bowman created the "Last Man Stands" amateur Twenty20 league, and in 2000 was a founder of the Woden Wanderers Cricket Club, which won the 1st Grade championship under his captaincy in 2010.
Bowman, who has family ties to this region in Maxwell, had previously moved to New Zealand to take up a junior cricket coaching role in Manawatū, but returned with his family to Australia when Covid first appeared in 2020.
Under its new board, Cricket Wanganui had been searching for a director of coaching in mid-2021, and Bowman had been eager to accept, but got the role just two weeks before New Zealand went back into lockdown due to the Delta variant outbreak.
With the Bowman family finally able to get a MIQ spot, Cricket Wanganui's chairman Mark Lithgow was waiting for them to get out to discuss a new role as Jordan Healy was stepping down as general manager.
Bowman accepted the position and, with a new family home close to the park and his sons enrolled at Brunswick School, he is committed to helping build the game in Whanganui.
There is much to do – improving the state of the pitches at Victoria Park and the temporary pitches at the Springvale fields, fostering junior numbers and rebuilding the women's game, as Cricket Wanganui has been without a representative squad for a couple of seasons.
United stalwart Steve Meredith will work on the pitches for the rest of the summer, the search for another director of coaching will begin, and Bowman would also like to see someone come into the women's development space.
Bowman, who will be based in the Sport Whanganui offices for the next few months, said he knew this work would be a long, and hopefully steady, process - the "small wins" as part of the overall strategic plan.
"I'm not trying to bite off too much. It's not a one-man job.
"The fact is that it's about community. From a kids' perspective, it teaches them to work as a team."
