VTCA and GDCA decide whether to play after postponing return fixtures

The Victorian Turf Cricket Association and neighbouring Gisborne District Cricket Association have locked in plans for the weekend and beyond.

Jayden Schwarze in action for Diggers Rest Bulla. Picture: Hamish Blair

After calling off their first post-Christmas fixtures last weekend, the Victorian Turf Cricket Association and Gisborne District Cricket Association have made calls on this weekend.

Both competitions were heavily impacted by COVID cases and forced quarantine following the Christmas and New Year period, with the VTCA also citing weather as a major factor.

The VTCA is expecting to return to action with its Round 8 fixture but the GDCA will take another week to assess the situation.

Both associations will scrap planned two-day matches scheduled for later in the season, instead reverting to a complete one-day fixture and allowing the lost matches to be made up.

VTCA chairman Steve McNamara said the decision had been made after a meeting with clubs on Wednesday night.

Aaron Briscoe is bowled by Kaushal Lokuarachchi. Picture: Steve Tanner

“We’re working closely with clubs and the Return to Play Committee, last week was more of a weather issue as opposed to corona,” he said.

“We’ll revert to one-day cricket for the rest of the year, that’s due to the increase in cases of the virus and the difficulty of stopping rounds mid-match.

“Last Saturday, because we’ve been running with a floating fixture, we’ve got the ability to build it back in.

“At this point we won’t use the February reserve day, we’ll leave that for the Sunday grades to have an opportunity to play.

“If there are further days we can’t take the part we’ll readdress it but we’ve got a sufficient number of days and blokes in those divisions pay their membership the same as the First XI.”

In Victoria 40,127 new cases were reported on Wednesday with a significant number coming from the west and north-west suburbs.

Wyndham led the way with 1515 cases, while Hume (1135), Melton (994), Whittlesea (875), Brimbank (850), Moreland (674), Moonee Valley (492), Maribyrnong (376), Hobsons Bay (285), Macedon Ranges (237), Moorabool (119) and Mitchell (101) all had large numbers.

The GDCA hopes to restart on January 22 and reschedule the missed rounds later in the season.

Association president Rob McIntyre said clubs were still missing a significant number of players.

Michael Allen in action for Gisborne. Picture: Hamish Blair

“We’ll take another week off, we’re still not sure how many clubs have players infected.

“We’re asking clubs to keep us informed and to let us know by Monday what their situations are so we can make a decision to hopefully return next week.

“All clubs are impacted … what we were finding was a lot of the players were First XI players.

“It would have meant, even though we only had five of the eight grades returning last Saturday, some clubs would have been playing their Fourths and Fifths in the First XI.

“It just wasn’t viable, it wouldn’t be competitive, with some clubs reporting up to 50 per cent of their players missing.

“We were planning to play two-dayers starting in late January and into February but we’ll change them back to one-dayers and slot in an extra three rounds.”

The VTCA has also confirmed plans to enforce promotion and relegation barring any more major interruptions to the season.

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McNamara said, unlike last season, clubs hadn’t missed many games.

“The question was raised about promotion and relegation given we didn’t enforce it last season,” he said.

“You can see a couple of clubs in each division are fighting to move up and a couple are looking for an opportunity to rebuild so we think it’s appropriate that that process takes place.

“Everyone has had a fair opportunity to show their wares.”