Cricket Victoria appeals to players, coaches and officials to get vaccinated for 2021-22 season

Players who aren’t fully vaccinated will face some restrictions in Victorian club cricket this season as Cricket Victoria goes into bat for ‘our ticket to a safe and enjoyable summer’.

St Bernard's Tristan Kassis batting at the college ground last season.

Social gatherings and some grounds will be out of bounds for unvaccinated players when club cricket starts across Melbourne.

Cricket Victoria is urging players, coaches and officials to get the jab but it isn’t mandatory to take the field in 2021-22.

However, those who are unvaccinated will be unable to play at some grounds and cannot attend social functions.

In Victorian Premier Cricket players must be fully vaccinated to play at the Junction Oval – the home of Cricket Victoria – and Melbourne University.

In Sub-District cricket the same applies to St Bernard’s College in Essendon and two grounds in the City of Banyule, Ivanhoe Park and AK Lines Reserve in Watsonia.

Cricket Victoria chief executive officer Nick Cummins said CV was “pro vaccination’’ in the interests of wider community health.

“But ultimately our position is whatever the government’s position is. We’re following their health advice,’’ he said.

“We’re not a biosecurity organisation. It’s not for us to design our own policies because we don’t have the expertise within Cricket Victoria to design them.

“Sport and Rec Victoria provide us with the guidelines and we adhere to that.’’

Cricket Victoria CEO Nick Cummins.

Cummins said feedback of the CV rules for 2021-22 ranged from criticism it wasn’t mandatory to be vaccinated to play, to relief club volunteers wouldn’t have to police rules around compulsory vaccination.

He said Cricket Victoria was mindful of the responsibilities put on club officials.

“It’s easy for us to enforce double vaccination at a Melbourne Stars or Renegades game because we’ve got paid security at the gate, telling people what they can and can’t do,’’ Cummins said.

“Asking volunteers to do that, particularly when we’re getting to a small percentage of people who aren’t vaccinated and those people are pretty ardent in their beliefs … we don’t want to create unnecessary friction.’’

Cummins said all CV staff and players were fully vaccinated, “and the sooner everyone is the sooner we don’t have to worry about these measures’’.

In a message on the Cricket Victoria website he said vaccination was “our ticket to a safe and enjoyable summer with limited disruption’’.

“Getting vaccinated is not just your means to support a healthy and safe community – it’s also your access to club events and the many social settings you enjoy throughout our cricket season.’’

All seven of St Bernard’s Cricket Club’s teams play at the college and players, officials, supporters and parents must be fully vaccinated to enter the grounds.

President Brendan Davey said everyone at the club understood and had complied.

He said St Bernard’s had appointed a Covid captain for each team to check in players.

Davey said it was more work for volunteers “but at the end of the day it’s what we’ve got to do to play cricket, so we’ll just have to do it’’.

“What we’re really big on is trying to avoid confrontation when someone comes unvaccinated and we have to politely ask them to leave,’’ he said.

Sub-District secretary Ken Hilton said the association was maintaining all the protocols it put in place last season, including the ball being sanitised after a certain number of overs and players bringing their own afternoon tea and drinks.

A school oval at St Bede’s College used by Kingston Hawthorn and the Mentone Grammarians playing fields at Keysborough used by Old Mentonians require players in Cricket Southern Bayside to be fully vaccinated.

“This is not a decision by the clubs but by the schools in the best interests of their students and staff,’’ Cricket Southern Bayside administrator Russell Keyt said.

“Please abide by their request, and persons attending will need to provide proof of double vaccination.’’

Players who are unvaccinated can enter the changerooms on match days but cannot go into the social rooms for functions.