Darley Cricket Club has criticised a decision by the Ballarat Cricket Association to cancel all cricket matches this weekend, saying it appeared to be made with only Ballarat clubs in mind.
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Darley president Rod Ward said it was incomprehensible that there would be no cricket played in Darley, which was forecast to have less than one millimetre of rain on Saturday.
He said the turf and wicket at Darley Park was prepared on Wednesday and Thursday, and was ready for use.
He said the club's first and second grade teams would play a practice match at Darley Park, while the third and fourth grade sides would play a practice match at Darley Hub.
"We appreciate that the BCA do not like cancelling cricket, but this appears to be a 'Ballarat-centric' decision and in our view, there is little doubt that some turf and most hard wicket games could have been played today and the decision to cancel the entire round was unnecessary," Ward said in a statement.
BCA president Rob Florence refused to comment on the allegation, telling The Courier he had full confidence in the committee and how the decision was made.
The BCA match committee took to Facebook on Friday to announce the cancellation of matches following advice from City of Ballarat.
The post outlined that no turf cricket could be played due to a lack of preparation to prepare grounds for competition.
A number of of Ballarat clubs agreed with the BCA's decision.
"I understand why they've been canceled because of the lack of opportunity to prepare the wickets and the grounds," Ballarat-Redan president Paul Aikman said.
"The rain came a bit earlier than expected to be able to properly prepare them."
Buninyong captain-coach Liam Brady said he would rather not play than to have another rain-interrupted round in which teams would have to stop and start.
"I think it's better off being called off when it was because at least people can still plan their weekend," he said.
North Ballarat captain Leigh Lorenzen said the decision may have been made prematurely but he didn't oppose it.
"We cancelled round three pretty late and last round we didn't and get a ball bowled," he said.
"The boys are all pretty disappointed, they just want to get out and play some cricket again."
