Northern cricket: Sagarmatha and Northern Riders lose playing grounds
A COMMUNITY cricket club for overseas players won’t play this season because Darebin Council won’t allocate them a ground.
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A COMMUNITY cricket club for overseas players won’t play this season because Darebin Council won’t allocate them a ground.
The club played last year with one men’s team but claims this year they aren’t allowed to enter the same side because they’re “too small.”
HOUSE PRICES A FACTOR IN PLAYER SHORTAGE
A BEE-ZARE START TO ONE DAY CRICKET
Sagarmatha Cricket Club secretary Asim Suvedi said they couldn’t understand why they’ve been given the boot. “Our understanding was we did everything right but suddenly the council says we can’t give you the grounds,” he said.
Mr Suvedi said they even offered to put in more teams, but were still denied access.
They were told three weeks out from the season the club had nowhere to train or play.
Mr Suvedi said his club was a refuge for immigrants who found a “second home.”
“All we care about is playing cricket, our players want to play, we don’t want to lose our players. Tell us what we need to do and we’ll do it,” he said.
Northern Riders player Steve Venditti-Taylor said his side was accepted into the North Metro Cricket Association and then told the council didn’t have a ground for them because there were no pavilions available. Mr Venditti-Taylor said he believed his side was being punished for the poor behaviour of other clubs. He said they’ll take any piece of grass they could get.
“If I have to I’ll hire portaloos and put up marquees,” he said.
North Metro Cricket Association general manager Neil Riley said pavilions weren’t required for lower grade teams and the rejections were “disappointing.”
Mr Riley said J.C. Donath Reserve in Reservoir had one empty ground, and two with just one team each. He said since teams play one game at home and the next away, some weeks there would be three empty grounds.
“How are we supposed to grow cricket and get people playing the game?” he said.
Darebin Council did not respond to questions before Leader’s deadline.
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