Cricket Southern Bayside hits out at Cricket Victoria over the loss of top administrator
Cricket Southern Bayside has come out swinging like an old-fashioned tailender, saying it “does not accept” Cricket Victoria’s decision to axe its key administrator as part of wide-ranging cuts.
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Cricket Southern Bayside has taken the long handle to Cricket Victoria over the removal of its key administrator as part of the Cricket Victoria staff cuts.
CSB’s operations manager Darren Anderson has been appointed CV’s competitions manager, with Victorian Premier Cricket his main responsibility.
He won’t be replaced at Cricket Southern Bayside, leaving volunteers to assume his work.
The CSB board has released a statement criticising Cricket Victoria and declaring it will fight the decision.
In 2016 Cricket Southern Bayside was the first competition created under CV’s much-trumpeted blueprint for metropolitan cricket.
CV employee Anderson has been in charge of the day-to-day running of it.
“The Cricket Southern Bayside Board was only recently formally advised of this outcome (Anderson’s departure) by Cricket Victoria, notwithstanding that the decision was made some weeks ago, and disappointingly that decision was made without any consultation,’’ the CSB statement said.
“The Cricket Southern Bayside board does not accept this decision and has responded to Cricket Victoria accordingly.
“As a result, a delegation of the Cricket Southern Bayside Board recently met with senior management at Cricket Victoria to personally convey our concerns and our expectations that our service level agreement with Cricket Victoria be honoured.
“We have agreed to meet again as we endeavour to find a solution. The board will not accept any solution that fails to deliver the level of service and experience that our members are not only are accustomed to but signed up for.’’
It said Cricket Southern Bayside members were the first — and so far only — from metropolitan cricket to support Cricket Victoria’s metropolitan cricket strategy.
It had showed that a model of “putting our participants at the centre of everything we do works …. we believe that this support should be rewarded.’’.
“We are proud of what we have achieved together over the last four years and take pride in the fact that we are the most progressive, diverse and fastest growing cricket association in Victoria, if not Australia.
“Rest assured that the Cricket Southern Bayside board will continue to take whatever measures are necessary to stand up for our member clubs, their players, volunteers and supporters.’’
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The CSB board statement said the cuts to community cricket staff were a “a devastating result for grassroots cricket in Victoria and the hardworking volunteers who work tirelessly to deliver the game’’.
The cuts have also hit at Inner South East Cricket, a junior competition.
ISEC came under the administration of CSB last season and president Tim Boyce said it was a success.
Now it will have to go back to being run by volunteers.
Boyce said the “total disregard CV has shown for those associations who showed them the highest level of support speaks very poorly to the motivations and strategic ability of the decision makers.
“ISEC is a strong junior competition as we know, has operated well with limited support previously, and is well positioned to do so going forward if need be. We have a capable, dedicated committee and an outstanding list of clubs and their volunteers.
CV general manager of community cricket John Watkin said Cricket Victoria had been in discussions with CSB for some time about a “transition to a self- sufficient model in terms of operational support’’.
He said the impact of the COVID-19 crisis had forced CV to “accelerate this process’’.
“We have agreed to work together to develop an implementation plan to manage this change and our joint focus is on ensuring a smooth transition for the competition.’’ Watkin said.
“A lot of work has gone into the success of CSB and we are determined to see it continue to grow and thrive.
“It’s not a setback. We’ll continue to support the Victorian cricket community so they can deliver the best competitions possible for their local region.’’