Bunbury and Districts Cricket Association considering fast-tracking season to avoid being called off by COVID

The Bunbury and Districts Cricket Association season could be finished as soon as this month under a radical plan being considered to fast-track the competition to avoid being shutdown by the pandemic. The executive is considering two options, which were communicated to clubs on Wednesday — one of which would see finals begin next weekend and a grand final held before the end of February. The other option is to play the season’s five remaining home and away games in full, with a contingency plan in place, should one or more clubs have players forced to isolate. Another option being explored is for the traditional three-week finals series to be condensed and played over a fortnight, with the semifinal and preliminary finals held on back-to-back days. BDCA president Russell Lindroth confirmed the two options which had been tabled, with a final decision set to be made on Monday night. “Option one is we play the season out as it is, with the possibility we may, for example, get through to the first semifinal and COVID shuts us down and we don’t have any more play,” he said. “The other option is we play one round of cricket tomorrow, which gives three or four of the grades 14 rounds of cricket and then we go straight into a finals series, which could go over three weekends or we may play the semifinal on the Saturday and the preliminary final on the Sunday.” Under a two-week finals series, the grand final would begin on Saturday February 19. Lindroth admitted that either option still left the association vulnerable to being shutdown, should cases in the region surge again. “We stlll stand a chance of being shutdown by COVID,” he said. “We could still be shutdown if we go with the shortened version, but we have got more chance of getting it through if we have only got four weeks of playing cricket whereas if we play a full season we have got another seven or eight weeks.” Clubs are understood to have already put in alternate proposals to the plan. If the season was unable to be continued at any point between now and the grand final, including during finals, the premiership in each grade would be awarded to the team which finished on top of the ladder. It is the same method used to award Marist the first grade premiership at the end of the abruptly cancelled 2019/20 season. Lindroth said if a club was to have multiple players forced into isolation, then one option on the table is to have that game considered an abandoned match and the points shared between the sides. WA Cricket-run competitions including Premier Cricket and Suburban Turf have also brought the ends of their seasons forward by playing all two-day games as 50-over matches. Currently, Eaton sit atop the first grade table, two points ahead of rivals Marist, who are a further three points adrift of Colts. All three clubs would be in the running for a top-two finish and the double chance if the finals were to begin next weekend, with Eaton and Marist to meet in a grand final rematch on Saturday. If the season was cut short, Donnybrook would be ruled out of the finals race and Leschenault would finish fourth. The women’s competition would be the only grade unaffected by the move, with the final two home and away games and two weeks of finals expected to be played regardless of the executive’s decision.