Picture: THOMAS MILES
DESPITE no balls being bowled for over a month, cricket is not immune from the effects of COVID-19.
Recently the South Australian Cricket Association announced 16 staff members and seven contractors were made redundant, while even Cricket Australia has been forced to take backward steps.
Fortunately for the game in the Limestone Coast, SACA South East club and participation officer James Dunn will continue his work during these difficult times.
With cricket being a summer sport, it was one of the lucky few to have its senior competition run its entire duration.
The 2019-20 Barber Shield grand final was held on March 7 and 8, just one week before other competitions around the region were cancelled.
Dunn said the timing of the pandemic was slightly fortunate for the game, but he feels uncertain for what lies ahead.
“We are in a bit of a luckier position with it being cricket’s off-season,” he said.
“COVID-19 has not really impacted us on field from a local point of view, but we just do not know what the future holds because everything is changing so quickly at the moment.”
Dunn said the only aspect of cricket which was hurt by coronavirus in 2019-20 was a couple of development sessions.
“The only thing we had to finish early was the little kids blast program at Tenison and an all-girls one at North primary school,” he said.
“They had to finish three weeks early, but that is all we had.”
Despite returning from a 21-day shut-down period, Dunn’s workload has been largely uninterrupted.
With the players and fans attentions usually caught up by football at this time of year, autumn is a time for reflection within the cricket community.
Dunn has been reviewing the game across all levels during 2019-20 and been interacting virtually with his colleagues.
He said many of the last summer’s initiatives made a positive impact and he already has an eye for improving next season.
“I think the programs we have run went really well,” Dunn said.
“I am looking to put a couple of new processes in next year to make the experience a lot better and easier for everyone doing them, especially the kids and parents.
“We have got a bit of work to do in a few areas, but it is on the right track.”
With the current state of affairs almost changing on a daily basis, Dunn was apprehensive on predicting if the game will feel any impacts next summer.
He said there were no plans at this stage if football was to run late and effect the season.
However, he is still preparing for everything to go ahead as planned with many months left until action begins.
“I am still planning on everything going ahead as normal until I get told otherwise,” Dunn said.
“We hope to start on schedule, but you just do not know with school programs not kicking off until term three and games over six months away.
“Looking at the trends all over the country, we are flattening the curve, so hopefully we can get back to normal pretty quick, but it is such an unknown.”
