More cricket changes for Victoria’s 1096 clubs to stop COVID-19 spread
Victorian community cricket will never be the same again after the sport’s peak body announced a surprising new partnership.
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Community cricket will never be the same again, with matches set to become a testing ground for germ-busting products.
Cricket Australia has today announced a partnership with Dettol that will help investigate the transmission of germs in the sport — even at a junior level.
Dettol said it will test and validate different hypotheses on germ transfer throughout the game, and the two organisations will work together to develop important hygiene protocols to help
teams, and support staff as well as the wider cricketing community.
“As cricket is a much-loved national sport played by 38,905 community teams, we believe it’s important to understand how our hygiene expertise can assist in helping keep the game and players protected,” Regional Director or Dettol’s parent company RB Health ANZ, Dave Rankine told News Corp.
“We therefore will be investigating if our products can assist in protecting the game which could include testing and understanding how our products interact with various cricket equipment and surfaces.”
The partnership will also see germ-killing products distributed to almost the nearly 3500 clubs across Australia.
It will be used at Victoria’s 1096 clubs which have 11,121 teams in total.
Meantime, cricket training resumed in regional Victoria on September 16, and Cricket Australia expects matches will begin around October 17.
Community sport is currently off the field in metropolitan Melbourne due to heightened COVID-19 restrictions.
Outdoor contact and non-contact sport for those 18 and under, and outdoor non-contact sport for adults is set to resume in metropolitan Melbourne under stage three of the state government’s COVID-19 road map.
The region can move to stage three once the 14-day virus case average is below five, and it is at least three weeks from the last change of restrictions - which most recently occurred on September 28.
Cricket Australia’s Club and Competitions Manager, Scott Tutton told News Corp there would be some major changes, which will change how players use the nets.
“We’re also putting forward guidance around the use of training nets that would encourage the use of every second lane to increase the space between people,” he said.
“Another one is, when in a cricket lane and a batter hits a ball into the net they would then pick it up and throw it back to the bowler. Rather than do that, they should just hit it back with their bat.”
It comes after he stressed “no one will be able to use sweat or saliva on the ball”.
He said the sport’s governing body had also “aligned with state governments” on the sharing of equipment. If this does occur the gear must be cleaned and disinfected between users, but it is otherwise discouraged.
His comments come after Sport and Recreation Victoria lifted its ban on spectators at senior cricket.
Spectators are also permitted at competitions for those aged 18 and under “for those supervising children or supporting players with additional needs, while maintaining gathering limits of no more than ten people’’.
Indoor cricket training is banned, but outdoor training is permitted in group sizes of no more than 10.
However, three groups of 10 can train at one time, one group in the nets, one on half of the ground and one on the other half of the ground.
The groups can be rotated across the session but they cannot mix.
Other protocols include:
- Everyone (including spectators) must check-in and check-out in case the need for COVID-19 contract tracing arises.
- Masks must be work by all, except for those under 12 and any player actively batting, bowling or fielding.
- Physical distancing of 1.5 metres to be maintained at all times.
- Training session attendees to use hand sanitiser on arrival and then every 30-40 minutes during the session.