In what would have been the first weekend back since the Christmas break, the league found itself forced to postpone after reaching out to all its clubs yesterday to get an indication of how many players were affected.
The postponement of this weekend’s action means that the round seven matches will now take place in round 15 (February 26) for A-grade and B-grade, while all lower grade games have been abandoned with drawn points awarded.
Cricket Shepparton’s senior cricket director and COVID-19 health and safety officer Brandan Reilly said having to postpone was disappointing but it was a measure the league had to take.
“After sending out an email to all clubs yesterday, enough came back to us and said they were going to be missing enough players to be short — and by the time you get your tests back at the moment it just wasn’t going to be viable (to play this weekend),” Reilly said.
“Most other associations around the area are starting to pull the plug too, so we had a bit of a discussion this morning between David (D’Elia) and myself and decided the only sensible option was to postpone this weekend’s games.”
Along with its normally scheduled matches, Cricket Shepparton was also forced to postpone the opening round of its showcase GVBBL — slated to get under way at Deakin Reserve on Sunday.
Reilly outlined the reasons behind that decision and the potential plan moving forward.
“It was the same ... with not many options left, they are really struggling numbers-wise to get teams on the park for this weekend, so it was a very easy call to postpone in the end,” he said.
“We haven’t made a decision on what happens with round one just yet, we may just make the round two matches round one, but that is still yet to be determined.”
As the situation continues to worsen, he said the league still had faith it would only have to postpone one weekend of games.
“I would like to say I’m still fairly confident we will get up this weekend, but obviously that is going to be reviewed constantly leading into it,” he said.
“The situation is constantly changing so we will continue to adapt and act on what we think is most appropriate when we receive new information.”
Cricket Shepparton is not the only league in the area putting a halt on a return to cricket, with Goulburn Murray Cricket also deciding to postpone its games this weekend.
