Some excellent information on this thread - thanks all. My club is also looking for an overseas amateur for the 2018 season for the first time. We've been in contact with CricX who have given us a shortlist of suitable players within our budget. We've looked at them in depth but have been unable to really find someone that we believe will suit our club.
We've heard mixed reviews about CricX but without any links with other agents and limited links to Australia, it was our only real port of call. If anybody has any insight / recommendations regarding the process of finding and acquiring an overseas amateur, that would be greatly appreciated.
With regards to standard of cricket, I have family who play in Melbourne and have said more or less what 'well past my peak' mentioned earlier regarding the VPL and VSDCA (Victorian Sub District Cricket Association). For instance, most of 4th grade cricket in the VPL system I'm told mainly consists of youngsters and a few experienced campaigners guiding them. Speaking to their club mates, they seemed to estimate that playing 1st XI in the VSDCA 'North/West' or 'South/East' competition would be similar to 3rd grade cricket in the VPL tree and it is players from that level/standard that we've been recommended to look at.