GCA reveals new fixture structure after abandoning a fourth weekend of cricket

The Geelong Cricket Association has revealed the new fixture plans for the 2022/23 season after losing another weekend to the rain.

Rain stops play at the GCA2: Geelong City v Torquay. Richmond Oval, East Geelong, game. Picture: Alan Barber

THE Geelong Cricket Association has made the call to restructure the rest of the season after a fourth-consecutive weekend was washed away.

No cricket was played in the region across the weekend, with the GCA, Bellarine Peninsula Cricket Association, Geelong’s premier side and school teams getting called off on Saturday morning.

GCA1 and GCA2 have scrapped the one-day final that was set to be held on December 17, with all teams to play that weekend instead.

Instead, the top two competitions will play seven two-day games and three one-day games, with the board asking clubs to vote on a preferred schedule structure.

The majority clubs opted to keep two-day cricket, instead of reverting to solely one-day games that have dominated the schedule in the past two seasons.

GCA vice president Sam Hall said it was difficult to please everyone, but he hoped cricket could start as soon as possible.

“The lower two grades were almost unanimous in their decision of wanting to play one-day cricket, while the majority of GCA1 and GCA2 wanted two-day cricket,” he said.

Meredith copped 60mm of rain on Friday night. Picture: Mark Wilson

“We want to work with the clubs with what we come up with, we’re hoping we can just get started and play some cricket.

“We can’t plan for the weather at the start of the year, and we can’t really plan for it when we redo the fixture either.”

The season will resume on January 14 after the Christmas break, rather than the earlier January 7 date that was initially scheduled.

GCA3 and GCA4 will play 17 one-day games, instead of the 7-7 (GCA3) 14-3 (GCA4) splits that had been scheduled.

The opening eight rounds of the season for the lower grades will be played with white balls and coloured apparel, before switching to red balls and white apparel after Christmas.

GCA1 and GCA2 will follow the traditional ball and apparel system with both formats being played across the season.

Hall said it would be good to have two-day cricket back after being Covid forced the competition to revert to just one-day games.

“There are plenty of young players who moved up into the senior grades during Covid and they’ve never played two-day cricket,” he said.

“I don’t really mind what format we play, as long as we get on the field and play cricket, but it’ll be good to get both forms back in some capacity.”

The association also postponed the opening T20 round, moving the games to November 8.

Fixtures are set for November 22, December 6 and January 17, with the grand final to remain on Australia Day.

Originally published as GCA reveals new fixture structure after abandoning a fourth weekend of cricket