By Nick Creely
All community sport was cancelled on the weekend in Victoria with the state once again plunged into a lockdown.
From 11.59pm on Friday 12 February, until 11.59pm on Wednesday 17 February, the state moved to a “circuit breaker action” to combat the spread of Covid-19 after an outbreak at the Holiday Inn in Melbourne.
“By limiting our movement, we limit the potential spread of the virus,” a statement on Friday from Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews read.
“And by going hard and going early – we’re giving ourselves every opportunity to get in front of this.”
It means that restrictions imposed were similar to last year’s lockdown, which saw all of winter sport cancelled for the year.
All indoor physical recreation and sport, as well as outdoor physical recreation and sport will be closed until 17 February, with only four permitted reasons to leave home: shopping for necessary goods, caregiving or compassionate reasons, essential work or education, and exercise.
The announcement will included local competitions such as the Victorian Premier Cricket, Dandenong District Cricket Association, and the Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association.
DDCA secretary John Brooks told clubs on Friday that the association will wait for further advice from Cricket Victoria and the State Government about any resumption of play.
Any decision regarding the possible replay of matches will not be made until later (this) week,” he said.
“Please stay safe and abide by all the rules.”
Victorian Premier Cricket’s Will Rice also updated clubs about the competition’s plans for this weekend.
“This round will be abandoned and points will be shared between all competing teams,” he said.
“Training will not be able to take place until Wednesday 17 February at 11.59pm
“At this stage, plans are still in place for the remainder of the fixtured games scheduled from 20 February 2021, to be held subject to the updates from the Victorian State Government.”
These rules also includes cancellation of all cricket training until at least Thursday.
Depending on how the five-day lockdown goes, it won’t be known until later this week whether community sport will be given the green light to resume for the weekend of Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 February.
Across other sports, Round 2 of the NAB League Girls was cancelled due to the lockdown, Basketball Victoria also cancelled all competitions across the weekend, and Football Victoria also cancelled all training and matches over the weekend.
