At Monday night’s meeting, the association reviewed feedback from member clubs and decided the Seymour-based Eastern Hill would not be added to Cricket Shepparton’s ranks ― for now.
President Narelle Claney stated it wasn’t as clear cut a decision in terms of an outright negative response from clubs, but various issues were brought to light which factored into the verdict.
“They weren’t saying no outright, there was a lot of issues around structure, travel, what was best for Cricket Shepp ― there was a lot of different reasons,” she said.
“Some of the clubs were in favour, but it wasn’t an overwhelming majority. It was fairly line-ball.
“We took all of that into consideration with all the different things and that’s why we’ve gone ‘we just need to stop, think, and come up with a plan for cricket for the region’.”
Claney said the association intended to create a roadmap for cricket in the wider region, meaning its knock back of Eastern Hill was not a concrete ‘‘no’’ for good.
“We’d already previously asked all of the clubs to send through their opinion on what they felt they wanted to do, whether they wanted the club in or not,” she said.
“The executive took all of this on board and, what we’ve come up with is at this stage (the decision is) no, they’re not going to be accepted into the association.
“But we’re wanting to sit down with our neighbouring associations and come up with a plan for cricket as a whole for the whole of the region.
“Because there’s obviously issues out there and it’s not that we’re saying no forever, we’re saying not at this time until we can come up with an actual structured plan for the future.
“It might mean that we need to restructure, there might be an idea out there for something totally different.
“But it might be that we need to get together with our neighbouring associations and with Cricket Victoria and come up with a plan.”
So what does the plan entail?
Claney indicated Cricket Shepparton had made contact with Cricket Victoria as well as Eastern Hill and Seymour District Cricket Association in relation to what the future may hold.
Whether it be getting stakeholders together to see what they can come up with or even a working party dedicated to mapping out a better path for inclusion in the wider cricket area, there’s nothing concrete set in place yet.
However, getting the ball rolling is high on the list of importance for Cricket Shepparton, according to Claney.
“Hopefully we can come up with a better plan for all our cricketers, not just our elite A-graders, but we’ve also got to be conscious of our juniors,” Claney said.
“Because if you don’t have juniors you don’t have senior cricketers into the future.
“Those are some of the considerations we took into place and all of the associations need to work together to come up with a plan for cricket for the future.”
