The BDCA’s Twenty20 competition is now nine years old, but this season would seem to be the wake-up call that some defined rules need to be in place for washed out games given what has unfolded.

This season’s tournament – which will culminate with Bendigo United and Kangaroo Flat meeting in Wednesday night’s final at the QEO – has been heavily impacted by the weather, but there has been inconsistency in how washed out games have been handled.

In the case of round three, those four games that were affected by rain were re-scheduled three weeks later.

That included two matches  – White Hills v Kangaroo Flat and Strathfieldsaye v Bendigo – being re-started. Fair enough to re-schedule those games given they were early enough and there was a slot available.

But in doing so, it raises the same question asked several months ago when the BDCA was considering re-scheduling its washed out round one of the season-proper.

And that is – shouldn’t what is applied to one round also apply to another?

Last Tuesday night’s final round of the competition was also affected by wet weather, with three of the four matches washed out without a ball being bowled.

But with the Twenty20 final booked for next Wednesday to coincide with Bendigo Country Week, there will be no re-scheduling of those washed out games, which has ultimately impacted on the finals aspirations of Golden Square, White Hills and Sandhurst, which could have all still made the final had the two Pool 1 games been played – or re-scheduled like round three.

The tournament also featured the round four debacle that ended up in the no-game between Huntly-North Epsom and Strathdale-Maristians when there was no suitable pitch for play. It was later declared a draw, which also had ramifications on the defending champion Suns’ finals chances – they missed a spot in the decider by three points.

While the Tuesday night Twenty20 is serving its purpose well in the BDCA alongside the season-proper, what this summer has shown is that there needs to be some clear-cut regulations in place from next season that will provide consistency in decisions when the wet weather strikes.

Luke West – sports reporter