One-dayers won’t give ‘true reflection’ of clubs: skipper
THE Geelong Cricket Association is set to start its season on November 13, with one-day matches to be played in all grades.
But it has drawn a mixed response from leaders across the competition, with Newcomb & District captain-coach Andrew Webb saying it would make life hard when it came time to make a decision on which clubs should be promoted or relegated.
“I am not that keen on it, and I don’t think it is right to make a call on what clubs should be promoted to GCA2 and which ones should be left in GCA3 without playing two-day cricket,” Webb said.
“A lot of these sides are full of dashers and with all due respect are not two-day cricketers, and when they get up to GCA2 they get found out because they don’t put any value on their wicket.
“I am really hard on our guys that they need to value their wicket and work hard and we are aiming at that 85-over mark because that is what we want to get back to, to that sort of cricket … I don’t think they can be making us play all one-dayers and then making calls on who should be going up or going down because it is not a true reflection of the clubs.”
All senior grades will be made up of 14 rounds of one-day games, with GCA1 and GCA3 to be split into conferences once each team has played each other once. Coloured clothes and white balls will be used for the opening seven rounds, with white clothes and the red ball brought back for the reminder of the season, conferences and finals.
East Belmont coach Chris Williams said he was a fan of the red ball being in play for longer given that was what would be used come finals.
“I think they have done everything they (the GCA) can to get it off the ground and it will just be exciting to get out there and playing sport and living life a bit more normally I suppose,” Williams said.
“We have pushed pretty hard over the last couple of years to get the draw to be an even one instead of a seeded draw or a luck of the draw, so it was great last year when we were able to play everyone twice and this option looks like the best way of making sure those double-up games are less likely to influence who makes or misses the finals or is relegated or promoted.”