By Nick Creely
The Victorian Premier Cricket competition is set to begin on the weekend of 13 and 14 November, with Cricket Victoria confirming the start date last week.
Cricket clubs and associations were given the all-clear to begin their pre-season training on Friday with Metropolitan Melbourne’s lockdown officially coming to a close, with preparations now well and truly underway for what is expected to be an uninterrupted summer of cricket.
For Victoria’s highest standard of club cricket, the men’s competitions will play 16 one day matches this season, played in white ball/colours including finals, while the women’s season is set to feature 14 one-dayers and finals, with the women’s second and third XI competitions will play 10 one-dayers and six Twenty20s.
In pleasing news, the VicSuperSlam Twenty20 competition is making its return this season, with three pools of six teams to play five games and finals, commencing Tuesday 30 November.
The Slam will run a little differently, with a West, Central and East pool, with games scheduled on Tuesday nights at 5.15pm. The semi-finals will be played on Tuesday 18 January with the top team in each pool plus the highest placed second team to compete.
The final is scheduled to be played on the evening on Tuesday 25 January.
Dandenong finished runners-up in the 2019/20 tournament Stars Conference, going down to Richmond, but were the Grand Slam champions in the Slam’s first season of 2018/19.
The Dandenong District Cricket Association has also locked in its season start date, with the seniors to begin on Saturday 13 November, while juniors will make a start from Friday 12 November.
Like Premier Cricket, the DDCA’s highly-regarded Twenty20 competition will return this season, but after Christmas, with 24 sides to be broken into eight groups.
Eight clubs will randomly be selected to host the first round triple header games on Sunday 9 January, with the the quarter finals on Tuesday 18 January, semi-finals on Tuesday 25 January and the grand final on Wednesday 2 February.
Buckley Ridges are the current title holders of the Twenty20 tournament, with the Bucks defeating Springvale South back on 3 March 2020 at Shepley Oval.
