By David Nagel
The Casey Cardinia Cricket Association (CCCA) is getting on the front foot with its member clubs to ensure a smooth transition through to the 2023/24 season.
The CCCA held its Annual General Meeting at the Merinda Park Cricket Club on Monday 29 May where long-time president Rob Hansen was reappointed to the role.
Ben Knowles, from the Clyde Cricket Club, will step into the role of vice-president, while Shane Dalton will remain as secretary and Aaron Straughair as treasurer.
Hansen explained that stability in the CCCA Board of Management would help with the communication and planning process over the coming weeks and months.
“The Board of Management has a really strong working relationship and we’re all committed to bringing our strategic plan to life,” Hansen said.
“Last season was a huge one for the association, rebranding from the West Gippsland Cricket Association to the Casey Cardinia Cricket Association.
“We’ve changed the brand, and that’s fine, but we’re committed now to making sure it’s not just a name change.
“We have an obligation to make sure we grow cricket throughout the Casey Cardinia region, and we do so in consultation with our cricket clubs.
“These are exciting times and there are many exciting things on the horizon.”
One of the main challenges confronting the CCCA, and other competitions around the country, is putting a fixture in place for the upcoming season that will accommodate an earlier finish…with Easter 2024 falling on the last weekend of March.
The CCCA Senior Cricket Committee, led by Pakenham player Jack Anning, has put together several options being put forward to clubs.
One option is for the top levels of cricket in the CCCA – Premier, District and A Grade – to play one or two Sunday matches during the season to ensure the traditional 14-round format, of seven one-day and seven two-day fixtures, remains in place.
Hansen said there are many factors that need to be considered when putting together the upcoming season schedule.
“Sunday cricket is popular around our region, which means access to grounds could be an issue, but we’re working closely with the clubs to make sure we get this sorted out quickly,” Hansen said.
“Once we have the feedback from clubs, we’ll have a planning meeting before the end of June and our affiliation meeting has been brought forward so we can get the fixtures organised earlier than usual.
“It’s important that we give clubs the time to plan for the upcoming season ahead.”
Hansen explained that growing Female Participation in the sport was one of the CCCA’s top priorities, with the association recently receiving a grant to help in that area.
The CCCA is hopeful that the creation a standalone women’s competition, driven by a handful of clubs, will not be that far away either.
One of the success stories of the recently completed 2022/2023 season was the implementation of a two-tier structure of the CCCA’s T20 competition…the Kookaburra Cup.
The success of the restructure has seen the format taken through to this season, while the CCCA is also looking at no longer linking club’s Premier Division clubs with their A Grade teams.
In essence, all eight Premier Division clubs were forced to have their second XI teams play in the CCCA’s third-tier A Grade competition last season, but the depth of club’s vary greatly, meaning the A Grade competititon became imbalanced.
The CCCA will work with clubs to come up with the most competitive solution for all clubs moving forward.
The CCCA has also appointed Pakenham president Phil Anning as Country Week Manager, with the popular Anning set to oversee the selection and management of the senior Country Week team that will represent the association in February next year.
“We’ve had an invitation from Casey South-Melbourne to play our Country Week home games at Casey Fields, which will remove the necessity of providing expensive accommodation for the players and support staff in Melbourne,” Hansen said.
Cricket Victoria is also changing its management platform during the off-season, with My Cricket being replaced with the PlayHQ system.
Hansen encouraged clubs to attend a PlayHQ information and training night at Comely Banks Recreation Reserve on Thursday 22 June.
