Cricket season just around the corner

THE final sirens have all but sounded on the winter football season, which means people across the region are digging out their whites for the 2023/24 Wangaratta and District Cricket Association season. The A grade action starts on Saturday, October 7, with the draws for the remaining senior and junior grades still being finalised. WDCA president Justin Kelly said final preparations were being made for fixtures and grounds. “The A grade draw’s been done, we’re just waiting to see the availability of the Rovers ground and the Norm Minns Oval because they’ve got to top dress those two ovals, which they should be doing this week,” he said. “You need to give it a month’s rest, so we can play on them from October 21, and that affects the B grade draw as well, so we’ve got to get all that in place. “B and C grade will predominantly be the north and south divisions, so we’ll do those draws this week.” The main challenge in preparing for the 2023/24 season has been getting all players and clubs on board with the new PlayHQ digital management system, which will take the place of the longstanding MyCricket platform going forward. During the months since the grand finals, clubs have been attending seminars, online tutorials and workshops to properly establish their organisation on the system, which is now mandatory for all cricket competitions across Australia. Kelly said there had been some headaches in transitioning to the new format, but everything should be in place for the start of the season in October. “NSW and Queensland used it last year and apparently they’ve ironed out some of the bugs,” he said. “Umpires and officials have got a completely different website which makes it a lot harder because previously it was all incorporated into MyCricket. “We had to load all the draws onto a separate website. “When you enter the venues, you used to have WDCA venues, but on PlayHQ you’ve got every venue in Australia that you’ve got to scroll through – it’s a quirky anomaly and a pain. “I haven’t had a lot of bad feedback from the clubs, I don’t know how their registration process is going. “I’m sure it’ll be a mad rush on Thursday night before the first game, chasing blokes up on Friday.” Rohan Berriman from the Merton Cricket Club said the new system presents more challenges than it solves. "It's more bureaucracy," he said. "We used to be able to call up a player if we were a man down and they would be able to play if we had their name and date of birth. "Now they have to register online. "It is going to hurt smaller clubs like Merton." Anyone interested in playing junior or senior cricket this year is encouraged to contact their local club and start the registration process.