BLACKROD members have joked a statue should be put up for Tushendra de Zoysa.

The Sri Lankan all-rounder, who scored a century in the Peter Stafford Trophy victory over Darcy Lever last weekend, has been with the club for nine years, the last four of them as professional.

He has been the Bolton Association professional of the year more than once and is widely believed to be capable of playing for a higher profile club than Blackrod.

But captain Joey Pryle, who joined Blackrod at the same time as De Zoysa, says the club is the perfect fit for his team-mate.

"Tush is a class act," he said. "On the pitch he averages 50 to 60 wickets and scores 1,000 runs a year.

"We came to the club at the same time. He was playing in London and when he came up north he liked it right away.

"He has been at the club ever since, for the last nine years.

"We made him pro four years ago and he has just kicked on in the role.

"It has been vital to have him because we have relied on him on the field.

"But there's a lot more to it than that. My emphasis is bringing on the kids because if you don't give them an opportunity to play in the first team they'll get fed up and leave the game.

"Tush feels the same. He wants to bring the kids on and he does a lot of work on that. He lives in Blackburn and he's up at the club all the time – his lad plays in the under-9s now.

"He's great around the club, he helps the kids and just gets stuck in the same as everyone else.

"And he's been a great player for a long time. We've said we should put a statue up for him."

Blackrod host Heaton in the second of three Saturday Peter Stafford Trophy games tomorrow and Pryle, in his first season as captain, can see the team coming together but admits there's a big gap that needs filling following the departure of previous skipper and club stalwart Chris Sanderson.

"Sandy has been a good club man and a good servant to Blackrod," he said.

"He's a talented cricketer and leaves a hole in the middle order.

"We've signed a player called Eshan Ratnaweera who's been training with us and should be available to play in the next couple of weeks and we're hoping he'll fill the gap in the middle order."

They have also signed leg spinner Waseem Hassan, but it was fast bowler Joe Speak who took the honours at Darcy Lever.

"He took six wickets and had two dropped catches," said Pryle.

"He was quite devastating on Saturday and I just want to keep that going.

"He takes after his dad Gary Speak who played for Lancashire and he's a carbon copy of his dad."

Pryle believes Blackrod are in the best league for them and is also happy with the current 20-club set-up.

"I am happy we're in the Bolton League because we have more local games," he said. "Before we were going to Manchester which was hard.

"I like the format with 20 clubs. We play league games on Saturday and some cup games on Sundays.

"If we have more teams that would mean more double headers and people find that hard when they've got families.

"I like it as it is."