Eastern Hill Cricket Club have been denied transfer to Cricket Shepparton from the Seymour District Cricket Association, SDCA, leaving the club ‘extremely disappointed’.
A statement issued by Eastern Hill said at the end of the application process it was ‘reasonably confident of a positive outcome’.
“In fact, the club was informed by the Shepparton Cricket Association, SCA, that our proposal was by far the best it had ever seen with its content and detailed information,” the statement said.
“We were informed the vote by the SCA was extremely close, but the reason given for the rejection was not based on distance, nor travel or working around junior fixture, but rather the need of the SCA to consult with Cricket Victoria to investigate the viability and future of surrounding associations.”
Eastern Hill plans to reapply for transfer next year.
However, the club said it believes written communication between SDCA and Cricket Shepparton may have swayed the outcome.
“While we respect the SDCA’s right to discuss its future, we do not respect its involvement in attempting to discredit [our] proposal through lies and misinformation,” the club said.
“We will be seeking a full apology from the SDCA.”
SDCA president Ben Tresize said there was no misinformation in the email correspondence.
“They asked to see a copy of the email I sent to Cricket Shepparton, which I willingly gave them and they looked through it and thought it was mistruth, but I stand by everything I put in that email,” he said.
“I just said ‘although they disagree with what I said, I fully stand by what was in that email and I hope we can move on’.”
Tresize said he was happy Cricket Shepparton saw the ‘bigger picture’.
“We sent them an email to say this is potentially what could happen with the SDCA now. We’ve lost Kilmore and Broadford so we might become unviable as an association because we’d only be left with six teams if Eastern Hill left,” he said.
“They had a meeting with their executive and decided this probably is not best for cricket.
“While clubs have to think of themselves, there is a bigger picture. Potentially if Eastern Hill left and our remaining clubs [could have]decided it wasn’t viable for us to have a competition, which we would run in the interest of local cricket, potentially there would be 240 players without a game of cricket on the weekend.
“We thank Cricket Shepparton for considering the picture and our future.”
