BPCA washed out and abandoned after rain ruins round 3

BPCA president Ian Caldwell has confirmed what will happen to the league fixtures after the round of cricket was washed out.

Cricket BPCA A1: Jan Juc v Barwon Heads. at the Bob Pettitt Reserve. mopping up after the rain Picture: Mark Wilson

BPCA President Ian Caldwell has confirmed there will be no change to the structure of the season after round 3 was cancelled on Friday.

Large parts of Victoria were facing flood warnings as a barrage of rain battered the state, forcing the cancellation of the GCA and premier cricket as well.

Caldwell said it was disappointing to have to reach the decision to call off the hard-wicket competition.

“In the last 24 hours the amount of rain has been phenomenal,” he said.

“Playing on hard wickets does mean it can be easier to get grounds safe to play after rain, but with athletes running, fielding and bowling, it can be very dangerous if they happen to fall over.

Cricket BPCA A1: Jan Juc v Barwon Heads. at the Bob Pettitt Reserve.The teams runs off with the rain Picture: Mark Wilson

“We had questions Thursday whether we could go ahead but clubs did assessments on their facilities after the amount of rain we had, and a lot of them found water lying on the top as well.”

Caldwell confirmed all clubs would receive three points for a drawn game, except those who had been scheduled a bye round.

“The couple of clubs that have byes don’t receive any points, they wouldn’t receive any if the round went ahead, so it all evens out,” he said.

“We were fortunate enough to start the season, get games up and running, and getting players on the field and having a bat and a bowl.

“The way our fixture works is that we get 26 weeks to play our cricket, 21 of those Saturday’s are home and away games, there’s two weeks of Christmas break, two weekends for finals and one reserve grand final date if we need it.

“Our fixture is based on 21 days of cricket, everyone plays each other in a one day game and a two day game.

“We can’t turn two-day games into one-day games without ruining the fixture.

“A few seasons ago we had a number of Saturday’s that were completely washed out, but they were all the first day of a two-day game, so we were able to convert them into one-day games and have the games go ahead still.”

Originally published as BPCA washed out and abandoned after rain ruins round 3