Victorian Cricket Season Delayed

Cricket Victoria and AFL Victoria have come to an agreement on the start and end dates for local cricket and football in 2020. Due to Covid 19 there has been much discussion on how the season will be conducted for both cricket and AFL at all levels.

Some of the key agreement outcomes that have come out of the Cricket Victoria media release on Friday states that “Football will have priority use access to fixture competitions up to no later than the following:

Home and Away football fixtures for Seniors and Juniors to conclude on or before Sunday 27th September;

Finals (or ‘lightning premierships’) for Juniors to conclude on or before Sunday 11th October; &

Finals fixtures for Seniors to conclude on or before Sunday 18th October

Cricket will have priority use access to fixture competitions from no earlier than the following (with play to commence when safe to do so – including ensuring matches do not proceed until pitches are adequately prepared):

Premier Cricket 1st & 2nd Xl competition (Men and Women) – Saturday 10th October;

Junior competitions from Friday 16th October; &

All other senior competitions from Friday 23rd October.

N.B. Where community football competitions choose to not commence their season or have completed their season by the end of September, Cricket Associations shall retain priority flexibility to schedule matches from October 1st.

No football matches will be scheduled on any of the 21 Premier Cricket grounds (Men’s and Women’s) after October 1.

The Premier Cricket competition is entitled to schedule finals through to April 25, 2021. All other senior turf cricket competitions can only consider scheduling finals through April 2021 where they cannot commence their seasons before November 1, 2020 due to the time required to prepare safe wickets”.

Cricket Victoria CEO Andrew Ingleton thanked AFL Victoria for their cohesion in doing the lengthy discussions. 

“This delivers a fair outcome for both cricket and football to conduct our seasons as close to normal as we can in the current landscape. We understand our respective communities and our partners in state and local government are looking for clear direction on upcoming seasons and this agreement provides that. I’d like to thank AFL Victoria and our team at Cricket Victoria for their comprehensive work to deliver this.”

AFL Victoria Head of Community Football Stephen O’Donohue thanked the team at Cricket Victoria for its work to reach this agreement which is godsend for both sports.

“We are pleased to have reached this outcome for cricket and football in Victoria, sports that mean so much to many people in communities across the state,” Mr O’Donohue said.

This agreement and ongoing cooperation will help and continue to serve both sports well.

Written by: Patrick Morrow

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