Grounds across the Seymour District Cricket Association lay dormant for a fourth successive round at the weekend with continued heavy rainfall and the affects of last month’s flooding making it impossible for clubs to prepare adequate playing surfaces.
An unprecedented beginning to a cricket season, this weekend will mark one month from when the 2022-23 campaign was slated to get under way, highlighting just how severe the wet weather has been.
And with more rain set to fall on the Seymour region this week, a fifth straight wash-out appears increasingly likely as the conditions at a number of grounds are not getting a chance to improve.
In the midst of a frustrating waiting game, SDCA president Ben Trezise said there was nothing the association could do as mother nature continued to take hold.
“Grounds have got water sitting on them and it’s not going anywhere, so that has made it impossible to prepare grounds to play cricket,” Trezise said.
“Nothing is changing unfortunately and we have been forced to continue pulling the pin.
“Last week we knew very early and called it about Tuesday because we knew it wasn’t going to happen, and looking at the forecast for this week, I think we will suffer a similar fate.”
While there has been no action on the field, off the field the association and its clubs have been busy as ever trying to navigate through the situation.
The club hit hardest by the flooding event in Seymour, Eastern Hill, appears to have found a temporary home at Bennett Oval as repairs continue at its traditional Kings Park base.
“I spoke to them last week and they said they had spoken to the Mitchell Shire council about using Bennett Oval in Seymour,” Trezise said.
“So that will turn into a bit of a make-shift base for them, while Kings Park is out of action and will allow them to host matches and train.
“Based on the current state of play at Kings Park it could be a while until we see any cricket played there.”
As for what the season will look like once players are finally able to get back on the park, Trezise said it was very much a “wait and see” as clubs get together to work out the best path forward.
“Right now we will just see when we can get our first match up and from there formulate a plan for how the season will look,” he said.
“It is important to get a gauge of what the clubs think because it’s not just a league decision, if we were to change the format (of the season) we’d need all clubs on board.”