RDCA 2021-22 season plans revealed

Ringwood District CA chief Michael Finn explains how the 2021-22 season will work – and when we might take the field.

South Croydon takes on Mooroolbark at Cheong Park in the 2019-20 Trollope Shield.

The Ringwood District Cricket Association has revealed its plans for the 2021-22 season – with the one-day format returning.

RDCA president Michael Finn has confirmed a format of “four one-day matches until Christmas across all grades” but said the Association would reassess its options on November 15.

Finn said he didn’t expect the season to start “before the end of October or start of November”.

“We will assess the cricketing landscape (on November 15) and also the broader community landscape of where COVID lies at that point in time with a view to making a decision as to whether we might try to get back to some two-day matches after Christmas, if the right set of circumstances are placed upon us,” Finn said.

“If not, we’ll continue with the same one-day format.”

RDCA chief Michel Finn says the Association will revisit the one-day format on November 15.

While the door remains ajar for the two-day format to make a return, Finn said it posed as an unlikely prospect.

“Right now, we will find ourselves in a situation, where unless the landscape changes, it’ll more than likely be, on the 15th of November, a one-day season again. We find that’s probably where it’s going to go,” he said.

“One of the things with the one-day format is that we were all hoping that this year we might’ve been able to get back to what we used to, particularly with the top grades, they are required to be a pathway into Subbies, and we want to give them that window.”

The RDCA had circulated three options to its clubs on August 19, before the state government’s lockdown extension was announced.

The first option detailed in the document was to “Proceed with a ‘normal’ season of 7 one-day and 7 two-day games according to the latest VMCU standard fixture”, with an aim of playing nine matches before Christmas/New Year.

It was however noted in the document: “This has the most potential for disruption with any form of lockdown. This option has a two-day game in the second half of October and if the second week was locked down it would become an abandoned round. There would be no option to make up for the lost round.”

Finn says clubs would need two or three weeks to reboot ahead of the season starting.

The second option also provided seven one-day matches and seven two-day, with the season starting with six one-day matches followed by three two-dayers to fit in nine matches ahead of Christmas/New Year.

The model aimed to “minimise the impact of any short lockdowns during the first six weeks after which, hopefully, lockdowns will be a thing of the past”, adding that it would proceed with seven two-day matches and one one-day matches if the government had “guaranteed” no more lockdowns. Any one-day matches lost “could be simply lost or change the later two-day game to 2 one-day games to achieve the ‘everyone plays everyone else twice’ objective.”

The third option floated was to play 14 one-day matches, starting the season as early as possible on October 2, and without interruptions, the home-and-away season would end as early as January 22, with finals completed by February 12.

“It would provide us with up to a 7-week buffer to cater for lockdowns,” the document said.

Finn added:

“At that moment (of the document circulated to clubs on August 19), based on conversations that happened at our AGM, we invited clubs to give some thought process around what they thought might’ve been a good set-up. At that point in time we had a range of options,” he said.

“We can’t just simply start (the season)… we have to give the clubs at least a minimum of two to three weeks to reboot and to get their teams organised.”