CRICKET matches across the Mitchell, Whittlesea and Macedon Ranges regions were cancelled at the weekend as COVID-19 lockdown measures came into place across Victoria.
The State Government’s decision to impose a lockdown meant no community sport was allowed to be played across the state.
The lockdown is due to end at 11.59pm Wednesday but sporting officials are cautious it could be extended.
Seymour District Cricket Association president Ben Trezise said officials were operating on the assumption that training could resume on Thursday, but would adapt to government procedures as required.
“At this stage we’ve just pushed everything back a week. We can’t say exactly what it’s going to look like though, because it might be five days, it might be 14 days. Unfortunately we just have to do it as we go along,” he said.
“Our season was quite short initially and we had it in mind that if we had to postpone or delay for a couple of weeks, we had those couple of weeks up our sleeve.
“We’ll discuss that with the clubs if it does get extended, but as things stand we’ll just push it back one week and continue on.
“Some teams need to play that last game potentially to make the finals and have players qualify for finals, so to make it fair we just pushed it back a week.
“It’s about making sure everybody abides by the rules and stays safe.
“Hopefully in another three days’ time we’re able to train on Thursday and play on Saturday. At this stage it’s fingers crossed and hope that everybody’s doing the right thing and they let us out after five days.”
Gisborne and District Cricket Association had already made a decision to cancel the weekend’s play before lockdown restrictions were announced.
In a statement, association president Rob McIntyre said confirmed COVID-19 cases in Sunbury meant there was a risk to players’ health.
“We’ve taken the approach that it is better to lose one week of cricket than risk losing the rest of the season. DHS and Cricket Victoria have supported the decision as the right thing to do,” he said.
“We are not prepared to put the health and safety of our cricket participants and members of the wider community at risk. We will review the advice from health authorities after this weekend to consider if we can resume cricket matches the following weekend.”
In a social media post, Diamond Valley Cricket Association officials said they would make a decision on whether the cancelled games would be replayed at a later date and communicate it to clubs.
