FOR the third straight year, the Swan Hill & District Cricket Association faces an uncertain start to its season, with the board announcing earlier this week the postponement of all weekend matches.
While COVID-19 has been the main culprit for the delayed start over the previous two years, wet conditions and now a flood threat facing the township of Kerang and southern clubs in the SHDCA have forced the league’s hand.
A press release this week outlined the board’s decision: “The SHDCA Board has, given the impending weather, flood and isolation threat, taken the decision to cancel all cricket for this coming weekend for games to be played on the 21st and 22nd of October.”
“We have already lost the first two rounds of the season due to wet weather and the weather forecast for the next two weeks certainly puts the next two rounds in doubt.
“Road closures due to flooding have already made travel between Kerang and Swan Hill problematic and it is highly likely that Kerang and Murrabit will be isolated for a period of time.”
With this weekend’s action ruled out, SHDCA president Greg Cruickshank told The Guardian it was both the correct and responsible decision, despite the disappointment of the local cricketing community that it would miss another weekend of play.
“I hate the word, and we used it quite often last year, but it’s unprecedented. And although it’s for different reasons this year, with the wet start to the season and the impending flood threat that we’re facing, it’s still an unprecedented start to the season,” Cruickshank said.
“Even though the majority of us won’t be greatly affected by the floods, we have a number of people in our cricketing community that will be – especially in our outer lying areas such as Kerang and Murrabit.
“We have six junior teams that come from that area, as well as a number of senior teams, so the board has taken the decision to cancel all cricket for this weekend only.
“With that said, hopefully we’ll be able to move some games around in the junior grades so that the competition can still maintain its integrity and hopefully we can get started and play next weekend.”
The board is intending to swap a number of rounds around in attempt to get the junior season under way next weekend (October 28 and 29), with rounds 2 and 6 to be swapped in the under-13 competition and rounds 2 and 5 to be swapped in the under 16s.
These changes will mean Wandella, Kerang and the Murray Raiders will either play each other or have the bye and separate the southern-based teams from the northern teams, allowing the junior competition to proceed.
“By swapping those rounds, it also provides the opportunity for the Kerang teams and Murrabit to hopefully play against each other and therefore, everyone can get a game of cricket in without the disruption of road closures and floods preventing games from happening,” Cruickshank said.
“The board will reassess the situation again next week, as there’s still the possibility that more towns and teams and communities are affected for next weekend – so we’ll just have to play it by ear and see what happens week by week.
“I know it’s a cliche, but all we can really do at this point is take things one week at a time.”
