THE Northern District Cricket Association has postponed the season until further notice due to the flooding emergency in Gannawarra.
Association president Tim Coote spoke to The Gannawarra Times and said while it was disappointing, cricket was not a priority at the moment.
“Hopefully, we can get started soon, but there are obviously far more important things going on right now,” he said.
“Players are sandbagging and looking after the community – it’s just not feasible to ask them to train, let alone travel on dangerous roads to play.
“The grounds are being used as community centres to sandbag and organise as well, so that’s another factor.”
Pitches will be another issue, with grounds saturated from months of torrential rain in the region.
“The pitches are going to take a ton of work with all the rain we’ve had,” Coote said.
“We’ll be proactive and look to start as soon as possible, but all we can do for now is just wait and see.”
All four senior A Grade clubs in Kerang, Koondrook, Barham and Murrabit have decided to cancel junior and senior training with sandbagging replacing training on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.
It was not yet clear what will happen for Kerang’s under 16s and Murrabit’s 16s and under 13s, who are competing in the Swan Hill District Cricket Association this season and thus subject to another association’s decisions.
However, it was expected fixtures in the SHDCA will be changed in most divisions sometime this week to accommodate the situation of affected clubs, including Wandella, who play in both senior and junior competitions in the SHDCA.
With Kerang set to be cut off for a week before a massive clean job in the near future and the floodwaters potentially still to reach Koondrook, Barham and Murrabit, it was hard to envisage the season beginning any time soon.
