VSDCA to ‘revisit the fixture’ as wet start to season continues

The Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association is considering a radical change to the current fixture after the first four Saturdays of the season were washed out.

The north oval at Kew on Saturday morning.

Changes to the Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association fixture are being considered after the opening four Saturdays of the season were washed out.

The current fixture could be redone, with two-day games before Christmas scrapped and replaced by nine one-day games.

VSDCA chief executive and secretary Ken Hilton said the proposed changes would “maintain the integrity of the competition” and allow the full 15 rounds to be played.

“Already some clubs have said to me they’d still like to play the complete 15 rounds,” Hilton said on Sunday.

“So what we are thinking of doing is revisiting the fixture — this is for firsts and seconds.

“We would think about playing rounds one to nine, which would take us up to Christmas, as all one-day games.

“That gives us enough playing days.

“We had one Saturday-Sunday two-day game included in that. We’d still use these days but play one-day games.

“We’d play nine one-day games which will take us up to Christmas. If we can get through to that stage our fixture would be up to date and the second half of the year we’ll just play it as the advertised fixture which is a mixture of a couple of one dayers and three or four two day games.”

The Victorian Sub-District Association hopes to finally start its season on Saturday. Picture: Andy Brownbill

Hilton said the VSDCA would decide on any changes by Monday afternoon.

He conceded the loss of two-day games wasn’t ideal but the opportunity to still play 15 rounds was attractive.

“It’s a bit of a confusing picture,” Hilton said.

“Clubs, after two years of one day cricket, want to get back to play some two day games but on the other hand they also want to play the 15 rounds.

“So now that we’ve lost four Saturdays we’re trying to get our heads around how we can achieve both.

“This way we can still maintain the integrity of the competition by playing the 15 rounds but also play some two day cricket.

“And I’m thinking this is perhaps the best compromise.”

The flooded south oval at Kew Cricket Club on Saturday morning.

Hilton said heavy rain on Friday night and Saturday morning turned some Subbies grounds around Melbourne into lakes.

He said ovals at Kew, Caulfield, Spotswood, Plenty Valley and Ivanhoe were the worst affected.

“All grounds had their covers down. It wasn’t so much the wicket tables it was just the outfields were waterlogged,” he said.

Malvern captain and former Test spinner Michael Beer said he couldn’t remember four successive Saturdays being washed out.

“It’s frustrating,” he said.

“All we can do is get ready to go.

“I remember the year I went to Perth in 2010 all the boys kept ringing me from Melbourne saying, ‘we’re at the pub’, every week.’’