CS Team of the Century | Ian Sartori: A unique sportsman

In the lead-up to the ceremony, The News will run special feature pieces on all 30 players, before the release of a commemorative magazine on November 25.

Ian Sartori is considered a one-of-a-kind sportsman, with his story one for the sporting romantics.

A master with cricket bat and ball in hand, he was also a skilful footballer and played 65 games as a forward for St Kilda and Richmond.

He rubbed shoulders with the likes of cricket stars Greg Chappell and Garry Sobers to VFL legends Alex Jesaulenko and Francis Bourke.

Sartori, who grew up at Daylesford, started his cricketing journey playing at Musk Cricket Club with his father in the 1974-75 season.

At age 15 Sartori won his only premiership in cricket in that debut year with a swashbuckling century in the Daylesford Cricket Association A-grade final.

"I opened the batting with my father before (early wickets) left myself and Noel Bull out in the middle together and we put on 196 together," Sartori said.

“It’s hard to remember that grand final, but I can remember being in a pub with my father drinking lemon squash late into the night. It was just a different era.”

Sartori went from premiership glory as a 15-year-old to playing for North Melbourne Cricket Club.

The gifted right-hand bat would travel from Daylesford to North Melbourne, where he played 123 First XI matches from 1976-77 to 1989-90.

"We had a young side; playing with names like Ian Chappell and Garry Sobers was a unique experience and captaining the team was great," he said.

During the winter months Sartori would play the rough and tumble of VFL football.

Sartori played 47 games at St Kilda before a disagreement regarding the clash between cricket and football meant Sartori left for Richmond Football Club.

He said Richmond was flexible in his demands to play cricket during the off-season.

Sartori’s time at Richmond was marred by injury and further grand final heartbreak — where he was a member of the losing 1982 grand final side.

Sartori would go on to play another 18 league football games before he gave it away for a move back to the country.

Sartori’s entrance to Shepparton cricket came through him moving to Katandra to buy a business in the early 1990s.

He plied his trade at a fledging Katandra side where he gave the Eagles a taste of A-grade cricket.

But he couldn’t achieve the ultimate premiership success during his time at the Eagles.

"We tried developing the side the best we could. It was a great bunch of guys to play with," Sartori said.

A change to Numurkah had premiership heartbreak continue to follow Sartori, with the Blues suffering defeat in the 1999-2000 and 2000-01 seasons.

Sartori said the 1999-2000 defeat was the one that hurt the most.

“You get nervous sweats thinking about it and what could of been, but that’s cricket,” he said.

But it wasn’t all premiership heartbreak for Sartori during his cricketing time in the Goulburn Valley.

He led the Cricket Shepparton representative side to victory at Melbourne Country Week in 1996.

Before winning the carnival a fellow Shepparton legend, Jasper Jones, gave him a word of encouragement before the big game.

“Jasper told me to do my best, (he) made me repeat those words on the day where I scored a century ... I felt like no-one was getting to me," Sartori said.

“We were the best side in division one and the best Shepparton side to come to Melbourne during that era.”

His exploits for Cricket Shepparton had him finish with a batting average of 39.79.

Sartori finished his illustrious career mentoring his sons Daniel and Mitchell, who have since gone on to excel in their own cricket careers.

Daniel is a life member of Richmond Cricket Club and currently opens the batting for Footscray.

"It’s great teaching the boys about the game of cricket and I enjoy watching Daniel now at Footscray with a few of the old boys," he said.

Asked how he felt about being nominated for Cricket Shepparton's Team of the Century, Sartori said he was “pretty rapt” to make it.