Cricket participation in Victoria could drop after job cuts
Victoria has long been the best state for cricket participation in the country, but significant pandemic-related job losses at Cricket Victoria are now threatening that. So what’s the plan to keep growing the game?
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Cricket could be headed for a huge participation drop in Victoria when the sport resumes in the post-coronavirus era.
There is significant concern among the cricket community about how the state’s governing body plans to grow the sport at a grassroots level after cutting two-thirds of their field staff.
The participation officer position – of which there was one in each of the 17 regions across Victoria – has been discarded completely amid sweeping staff redundancies by Cricket Victoria as they try to survive a financial crisis.
The 17 staff – who have all lost their jobs – were responsible for co-ordinating and administering cricket programs at schools and local clubs.
One of three key strategic goals in Cricket Victoria’s five-year plan that runs to 2022 is growing participation to No.1 in the country.
The strategic plan said the organisation would aim to “grow sustainable participation and increase support for Victorian clubs and volunteers”.
Primary and secondary schools are seen as a key recruiting ground for local cricket clubs in both metropolitan and regional areas as they help to introduce kids to the game and connect them with nearby teams.
Cricket clinics and programs in schools are mostly facilitated by Cricket Victoria employees in each of the regions with the help of casual staff and volunteers from local clubs.
Sources within the organisation and the cricket community in general have been left shocked at what looks like a complete abandonment of grassroots cricket by the governing body.
They said the link between schools and local clubs, which had been missing in the past, was beginning to work under the current Cricket Victoria model.
In some regions up to 20 school clinics a week were run during the peak summer months in term one or four.
How that is expected to continue with only one-third of the staff when some level of normality resumes following coronavirus is uncertain.
Cricket Victoria CEO Andrew Ingleton said during a radio interview with Gerard Whateley this morning 36 per cent of the workforce had been made redundant.
In a statement, he said they were not walking away from their priorities.
“We will have a reduced number of staff to do that work but it’s incumbent on us to work with all our stakeholders to find new solutions to the challenges we face,” Mr Ingleton said.
“We will undoubtedly have to look at how we achieve those goals given the changes to our organisation but we intend for Victorian cricket to thrive in the years ahead.”
Mr Ingleton would not detail what the community cricket division would look like following the restructure.
He has so far declined requests by Leader to be interviewed.
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Participation numbers in Victoria had been steadily rising in recent years to 448,608 – the No.1 state or territory – largely on the back of the growth in female participation and the popularity of the BBL.
Outgoing Cricket Victoria regional cricket manager Di Day, who opted to take a redundancy rather than contesting for one of the 12 community positions to survive the cuts, said she hoped people in the community could carry on their good work.
“My team has done a lot of work over the past 12 months with schools and clubs to be self-sufficient,” she said.
“I’m hoping we’ve done enough in the outer east metro region for them to continue on … and people will support the new structure going forward.”
The remaining two strategic goals are to make Victoria No.1 for fans through the BBL teams and No.1 for performance on the field.