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MAIDEN Gully Marist is leaving the Emu Valley Cricket Association to join the Castlemaine District competition.
The move will allow the Lions to utilise the newly-installed turf wicket at Marist College, which they wouldn't have been able to had they remained in the hard-wicket EVCA, while they were unsuccessful in their latest application to join the Bendigo District Cricket Association senior ranks.
"The main reason we've made this decision is so that our junior and senior players get the opportunity to play on our turf wicket," Maiden Gully president Neil Byers said on Friday.
"If you look back at our under-16A premiership team two years ago, we had 12 players in that team and our natural progression would have been to take them through to under-18s in Bendigo.
"We haven't been able to do that and we now only have two players left from that team at the club; we've lost 10 who have gone to various BDCA clubs to play on turf.
"And once you lose those players they are very hard to get back... our senior team last year only had three or four players who had come through our junior ranks.
"We'll never hold our good young players back from wanting to play at a higher level, but we want the junior players that we've developed to have the opportunity to able to play their turf cricket with us, not have to go elsewhere.
"We've always wanted a turf pathway for our kids and now we'll be able to get them as young as 14 or 15, provided they are good enough, onto turf a wicket."
Maiden Gully Marist - which first canvassed the prospect of becoming a turf wicket club about 25 years ago - will enter teams in the CDCA's A Grade, A Reserve and B Grade senior competitions.
The Lions intend to keep all their under-age teams from Master Blasters through to under-16s in the BDCA junior competition, while a decision on where their women's team will play is still to confirmed.
"We've been with the EVCA for 40-odd years, so it's a big decision to make," Byers said.
"But we're thinking about the future of the club and we need to get experience on turf. We're really excited that we now know where our future lies and that we can offer the chance for our junior and senior players to be able to play on a turf wicket."
The CDCA's A Grade competition will now feature Maiden Gully, reigning premier Barkers Creek, Newstead, Guildford, Castlemaine United, North Castlemaine and Muckleford.
The departure of the Lions will create a bye in both the EVCA's division one and two competitions.
"It's disappointing we haven't been able to facilitate their requirements. But the clubs have made a decision to remain on hard wickets and we wish Maiden Gully all the best," EVCA president Ron Gray said.
New BDCA president Travis Harling said one of the association's concerns about Maiden Gully's application to join was the creation of a bye, while there was already the uncertainty around how the upcoming season may look given COVID.
"We congratulate Maiden Gully on getting their wicket table. However, as an association we just don't feel ready for an 11th team at the moment," Harling said.
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