General News
8 October, 2021
SWC targeting November 13 start
SOUTH West Cricket (SWC) officials are eying off November 13 as its starting date following a meeting on Wednesday night.
SOUTH West Cricket (SWC) officials are eying off November 13 as its starting date following a meeting on Wednesday night.
The association, which had previously planned to start its competitions on October 16, is tentatively locking in the 13th despite the possibility community sport could resume from November 5.
But with uncertainty around the parameters of a resumption as well as an unknown timeframe as to further announcements, SWC is opting for a cautious approach.
“Given the current state of affairs, we felt it might be better to take a wait and see approach with the government’s return for community sport,” league operations manager Fraser Lucas said.
“We are unsure what implications the government may place on community sport’s return such as vaccination status and so forth, but also as to how we will receive the timing of that information.
“We think it’s best to wait an extra week from the November 5 date they currently have set to give us the chance to better digest what it released closer to the proposed date.”
Lucas said the league’s clubs were supportive of waiting a little longer to process what community sport requires to resume.
He said the association was now planning to play as many games as possible on the available Saturday’s for its senior divisions.
“At this stage we have a start date and a plan to have the division one and two competitions play each other once before we start the second half of games or make any further plans,” Lucas said.
“It’s a little harder with division three as there is more sides, but we have provisions in place for all grades to ensure we have a set number of games that need to be played to start finals.
“At this stage we will be playing our finals in mid to late March but we will take a little longer to assess what happens prior to Christmas before locking in definite dates for those games.
“There was also the possibility to play double-headers if required in division one but that can be tricky for clubs with player availability, venues and also junior and women’s competitions needing to be played on Sundays.”
A similar start time for its junior competitions has also been proposed but will be confirmed in the next 10 days.
The association is already in the process of drafting fixtures for its senior competitions ahead of another meeting later this month.
But there will be a major change to the division one competition, with games to be played with white or pink balls and in coloured clothing.
A review and subsequent update of the playing conditions and by-laws has also been completed in the off-season.
“We’re looking forward to introducing colour clothing and balls into our association this season,” Lucas said.
“It comes as a natural progression for the league considering all competition matches as well as our representative games are one-day contests.
“The playing conditions have also been revised to bring us in line to one-day games given at times last year we encountered situations where two-day rules were still present.
“We think the introduction and update of those respective aspects of our competition will continue to progress the league forward but also generate a greater viewing spectacle for all involved.”