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TRAVIS Harling has served as treasurer and secretary and now moved into the Bendigo District Cricket Association's top administrative role - president.
Harling, who first joined the board eight years ago, took over the BDCA presidency at this week's annual general meeting following the resignation of Wayne Walsh.
"I've been heavily involved with cricket administration for probably the past 15 years starting at Kangaroo Flat, through to the BDCA board and more recently as president of Northern Rivers and vice-president of the Victorian Country Cricket League," Harling said on Thursday.
"I enjoy being involved and being able to contribute to ensure the game continues on.
"We've obviously got our immediate challenges in terms of getting the 2020-21 season under way with COVID-19 and currently being in stage three restrictions, so our first focus will be to get a season away in some form.
"We've got six fixture options we're currently looking at depending on when we could start.
"But overall as a board, we want to continue to build the participation in cricket, in particular juniors and women's, and make sure our clubs stay healthy and cricket remains a stable diet in terms of a summer sport.
We want to continue to build the participation in cricket, in particular juniors and women's, and make sure our clubs stay healthy and cricket remains a stable diet in terms of a summer sport
- Travis Harling
"We don't want to see cricket fall away to being a minor sport, we want it to remain one of the peak summer sports and as a game we're really lucky in that we have three formats with two-day, one-day and Twenty20 games, which gives us flexibility going forward.
"It's also about listening to the clubs because it's not the board's association, it's the clubs association, which we administer. We're there to promote and move the game in the direction that our clubs want us to."
Harling will lead a new-look BDCA board that also features Robbie Bakes (vice-president), Tony Ryan (secretary), Brett Andrews (treasurer), Nathan Fitzpatrick (junior co-ordinator), Paul Abbott, John Hewitt and Glen Cole.
Abbott, Fitzpatrick and Andrews are new to this year's board, while Walsh, David Baird, Peter Slattery and Andrew Smalley have stood down.
Former president Walsh had a 12-year stint in the role.
"Walshy has given tremendous commitment to the BDCA and is still involved with our rules review we're going through," Harling said.
"He's said to me that his door will always be open for advice and I'm sure he won't walk away from the game."
The BDCA had hoped to start its season on Saturday, October 3, but concedes the current state government restrictions will make that highly unlikely.
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