NSW Premier Cricket: Sydney Grade Cricket Covid plans for 2021/22 season

Summer days of cricket seem a long way off with millions of people consigned to their homes. But there’s a plan in place for a near full season of Sydney Grade cricket.

Despite the sense of Covid doom rising across the state, hope remains that Sydney’s ‘summer of cricket’ won’t be a casualty of the global pandemic.

With the competition scheduled to launch in just six weeks, NSW Premier Cricket manager Roy Formica accepted there was next to no chance the opening ball of the summer would be bowled on that date.

“The state of play is we are essentially in a holding pattern,” he said. “We won’t be able to commence until we get in the all clear of the state government.”

Ryan Felsch of Sydney Cricket Club in action in 2018. Picture: Rafal Kontrym

When asked how long that holding pattern could be sustained for Mr Formica said it would be a numbers game.

A typical NSW Premier Cricket season has 23 weekends allocated for 15 rounds of cricket, not including finals, which sees each team play each other once.

If lockdown restrictions delay the start of the 2021/22 season the most likely option, to be discussed with clubs in coming weeks, is to shorten two-day matches into one-day matches.

This would follow the path of the Victorian Premier Cricket competition last season which solely included one-day matches after the competition launched in late November.

NSW Premier Cricket player Tom Jagot.

For the NSW Premier Cricket competition to complete 15 regular season matches, a softening of lockdown restrictions would need to take place before October 30 to allow a three-week pre-season before cricket matches take place on November 20.

“If we don’t get to start the competition until late November we probably will have to play a whole season of one-day games and we will try and get the T20 competition on Sundays,” Mr Formica said.

Despite the financial impacts of the pandemic most clubs managed to post a profit last season, however Mr Formica said Sydney grade cricket clubs may have to consider reducing the cost of player registration fees if the season was to be significantly delayed.

At a junior and park cricket level across the state, Cricket NSW said it was committed to a summer of cricket despite the uncertainty.

“While no one is able to say exactly what the future holds in NSW when it comes to lockdowns and restrictions, we are committed to getting as much cricket as possible played this summer,” Cricket NSW community cricket experience general manager Joanne Scanlon said.

“As we get closer to the start of the season, we are aware that Covid-19 continues to create some uncertainty.

“The projected timing of the start of the season remains conditional on relevant public health orders and while this varies across the state, we are working with all of our stakeholders to be ready and to be safe.”