From the Big Bash to the NBL, no league has been spared, leaving local associations such as Cricket Shepparton on edge and unsure of what to do next.
With teams across the league starting to see positive COVID-19 test results and players being forced into mandatory isolation, the potential for another weekend on the sidelines now appears to be very real.
Cricket Shepparton’s senior cricket director and COVID-19 health and safety officer Brendan Reilly outlined where things currently stand.
“We are in that situation at the moment where we have teams coming forward with people having positive results following being out at the Boxing Day Test and things, so we are in discussions at the moment about what to do with this round,” Reilly said.
“Whether it is pushing it back or pushing on and rescheduling certain games, there are a fair range of options we can look into and it’s just about finding the right option, depending on how many we have left.
“We don’t want to be seeing lower grade cricketers going into A-grade teams just fill a side, that is not good for anyone’s health and safety, so common sense will have to prevail in the finish.”
If the situation worsens to the extent where the league is forced to postpone this weekend’s action, Reilly said there were contingencies in place to ensure all 14 home-and-away rounds were completed.
“We have back-ended three rounds at the end of the home-and-away season in case of rain, heat or COVID, hoping not to see the latter of the options, but it is starting to rear its ugly head now,” he said.
“So, we have still have two weekends left where we can schedule A and B grade and if it did come to the case in the lower grades where they can’t fit in their scheduled games, they will just get drawn points.
“We aren’t seeing too many issues pop up at the moment, but there are some concerns starting to arise across the association.”
As the situation continues to worsen and flashbacks of incomplete winter sport seasons begin to once again plague local sports fans, many may be thinking the summer season could be destined for a similar fate.
Despite the obvious concerns, Reilly said the league was committed to pushing on and making it to that elusive grand final weekend in late March.
“We definitely haven’t reached that stage (of putting a stop to the season), we are still keen to push ahead and complete the season,” he said.
“We haven’t seen enough cases yet to need to stop the whole competition, we are sort of just looking at isolated teams and grades.
“For now we should be all right, but I suppose as the situation changes someone else might come back positive and we are chasing three or four other blokes to get a test —so we can’t look too far ahead.”
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