The Ballarat Cricket Association is hoping to forge on with a normal start to its 2020-21 season despite the potential for community football/netball leagues to push into late October.
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Last Friday, it was announced that AFL Victoria and Cricket Victoria had reached an agreement on a reshuffling of traditional dates.
In a nutshell, the agreement allows football to fixture matches on dual-purpose grounds later than usual because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Junior football must finish by Sunday, October 11, and seniors by Sunday, October 18. These deadlines will allow junior cricket to start from Friday, October 16, and seniors a week later.
BCA president Rob Florence said that discussions had already been had with AFL Goldfields about how the sports could proceed in unity.
"I'm just checking at the moment to see whether (those dates are) compulsory because we've already had discussions with football (administrators) here that it may infact still be possible for us to start at the start of October...," Florence told The Courier.
"Ground availability is a possibility in that we could still start at the start of October."
READ MORE: BCA open to talks on new-look season
Florence used an example that the Ballarat Football Netball League could use Marty Busch Reserve, Mars Stadium and the City Oval for finals matches, all grounds which aren't used by the BCA.
"But having said that, there's the impact on the preparation of turf wickets if they are playing through until the end of September... just home and away," he said.
"We've left it with AFL Goldfields anyway and let's wait and see what happens with football first."
Florence said Sunday cricket would be considered if there needed to be catch-up fixtures due to a late start to 2020-21, but didn't expect the association to be able to press on into April next year because of the timing of public holidays.
The BCA called an early end to its most recent season as the COVID-19 situation became increasingly worrying. That saw grand finals across the board abandoned and premiers awarded based on ladder positions and earlier finals results.
