TREVOR Saker's dedication and passion for country week cricket in the North East was honoured last night at the Wendouree Cricket Club, becoming a Hall of Fame member of the Victorian Country Cricket League (VCCL).

Saker, along with fellow Benalla native Greg Hoysted, were inaugural inductees to the VCCL Hall of Fame on Sunday night at the commencement of the 100th Melbourne Country Week (MCW).

Predominately with the Benalla and District Cricket Association (BDCA), Saker attended MCW for over 30 years, totaling 86 games played.

He was the primary organiser of country week in the BDCA from 1993 until the league folded and was the team bus driver in almost every year he attended.

Saker said he was in awe of the idea of country week cricket from an early age as he grew up in the suburbs of Melbourne.

"I remember driving around in the eastern suburbs and you'd see all these games being played on district grounds and it was country week cricket," he said.

"I only ever played on one day a week and I thought 'gee that'd be good to play on every day'.

"I moved to Benalla in 1987 and was good enough to make the side in 1988, and the rest is history.

"I never missed one until I was about 59 in 2017 when my son was getting married; he wouldn't let me go."

Saker was primarily a bowler in his time as a player at country week, polling best figures of 6/14 and had taken the most wickets in the week in winning country week years 1992 (11) and 1999 (13).

He said the antics off the field and the lifelong friendships made along the way with teammates and competitors further brought out his passion for cricket.

"Well you're playing a week of cricket, you enjoy yourself after hours, in the early days you probably enjoyed yourself too much," he said.

"As it got older we sort of changed the culture of it while in Benalla, we'd still go out for drinks but we'd be home by only 12am or so.

"We used to take a lot of under 17 kids so we certainly didn't get caught up in it drinking wise.

"And the other part is you get to make mates for years, you played against them, you'd stay at the Victorian Hotel a lot and there was at least five or six other teams there so you'd have a beer with them after the game and enjoy their company."

Some of Saker's greatest memories of country week cricket were mentoring the younger cricketers, including his own three kids, who would go to country week and learn priceless lessons in life and cricket.

"One year we made the final, I had to take over as captain because our captain had injured himself and we had six under 18s in the team," he said.

"On the bus on the way home, we used to stop halfway and get the players to say how their week was.

"The first kid we asked said 'this was the greatest week of my life', and everyone else sort of went with it, it was fantastic.

"We just kept building on that with the young ones, and they were looked after... and they'd all go home and tell their mates how good it was."

After the BDCA folded in 2015, Saker still contributed to MCW under the Wangaratta and District Cricket Association as the team bus driver until 2019.

The biggest change Saker has seen in country week cricket is the decine in the number of teams who travel to country week, largely due to the disbanding of smaller distrcit leagues such as the BDCA over time.

"When I first went [to country week], there were seven divisions of eight teams, 56 sides in total, eight of them alone were spread out across the North East," he said.

"And they've just slowly died, now it's just Wangaratta and Albury'; it's disappointing, but it's just the sign of the times."

Saker, 66, is still enjoying his cricket with the Benalla Bushrangers this season playing in C grade and is heavily involved as a selector in Australia over 60's cricket with Hoysted, who represents his country as an over 60s player.

Saker said he was going to enjoy catching up with some old friends at the VCCL Hall of Fame celebrations last night.

"I used to say to the school kids' parents, they're going to learn more about life in Melbourne Country week than they will at school, and they had the time of their lives," he said.

"I'm pretty stoked about it [being inducted in the hall of fame]; I just loved being around cricketers playing cricket, enjoying their company and mentoring young men."