BOIDC: Committee sets October 30 as a potential start date for 2021-22 season

The date will be subject to whether the state hits the required double vaccination target for community sport and whether any changes are made to COVID-19 public health orders between now and that target start time.

BOIDC president Mark Frecklington said it's the first step towards what will hopefully be an uninterrupted season of cricket for players across the region.

"It gives us something to aim for," he said.

"We've set that date based on what the expected time we'll hit 80 per cent [double vaccination] at and it gives us something to work towards and it lets the players prepare.

"If we're don't hit 80 per cent in time then we can just shuffle back a week or two, that's fine. It's easier to do that than waiting a bit longer and giving everyone less time to prepare."

Some slight tinkering was required to the initial draft draw that the committee had put together internally.

Frecklington said that we should still see a healthy competition take place, should the October 30 start time be met.

"At the moment we're proposing a 12 round competition, so we've dropped a one-day and a two-day game from our previous proposal," he said.

"It's now five two-day matches and seven one-day matches. It's a similar layout to what we've used before, with a couple of one-day matches at the start, then a couple of two-dayers into Christmas, a bloc of one-dayers in the new year, and then more two dayers to finish.

"We're just working out where to fit in the general bye. We're currently looking at the eighth of January for that, where we might be able to play a Bathurst versus Orange Western Zone Premier League game on that day instead."

As it stands, no major adjustments have had to be made to the planned Royal Hotel Cup Twenty20 calendar.

"We have it planned to start on the fifth of November and we haven't had to make any changes to that yet," Frecklington said.

"It's as per our original plan, we just need to fit a couple of Sunday games into that and we'll wait and see what happens with our rep cricket.

"It's more than likely that those Sundays will be earlier in the season, as opposed to later in the season when we originally planned."

A full draw for the BOIDC and Royal Hotel Cup is still to be released.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: