BATHURST Orange Inter District Cricket president Mark Frecklington said there's been no discussion yet between the committee and clubs on whether the 2021-22 may be forced to start at a later date.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The new competition is set to get underway in six weeks' time and could find itself tangled up with the finals of winter sports if they are forced to delay due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in the state.
The BOIDC found itself in a similar position last year due to COVID but didn't have to make any date or ground changes.
Frecklington expects it to be a similar story this year too, and is confident at this point that any delays won't be forcing the BOIDC committee to be shifting things around.
"We'll be chatting more about it once we know what the impacts might be," he said.
"We've got to allow some time at the start of the season for people to be ready for the competition but I would think that the next two to three weeks will probably determine if finals [for winter sports] are going to be pushed back any further or if they're going to cancelled entirely.
"We'll be waiting to see what happens there first. I know from last season there wasn't too much impact on BOIDC because we still had enough grounds available to get going.
"Last season it was only Bathurst soccer that got pushed back deep towards October but if every sport ended up going that late then that's when we'd have to start making some considerations."
At this stage it's still full steam ahead for the 2021-22 season, which maintains its 10-team lineup but with a new club involved.
Kinross withdrew from the competition after a tough campaign last season while Bathurst District Cricket Association second grade champions ORC are making the step back up to BOIDC level.
All other nine clubs involved from 2020-21 will be making their return.
"ORC will be a great addition. It's a shame not to see Kinross there but these things happen. We'll see in the years to come what their plans are," Frecklington said.
"We'll be keeping the same match structure as we did for last season. It will generally look similar."
Frecklington said there are still some minor things to clear up before the start of the season, including the exact number of overs that will be used for the one day matches.
"We'll be making decisions on a couple of little things with the clubs over the next week or so, including rules and length of one day games, which are currently at 40 overs," he said.
Bathurst Orange Inter District Cricket will again use a combination of one day and two day fixtures across the competition, with the layout of those games in the season still to be determined.
Orange City will enter the competition as the defending champions - and in the midst of a four-year winning streak over ODCA and BOIDC seasons - courtesy of their grand final win over St Pat's Old Boys.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content:
- Bookmark www.westernadvocate.com.au
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Google News