The Bendigo District Cricket Association and Emu Valley Cricket Association could be forced into a major revamp of their fixtures.
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Cricket Victoria's COVID-19 related return to play guidelines state that "school ovals may be closed for use".
The BDCA and EVCA use several school-based venues for senior and junior cricket each summer including Marist College, Kangaroo Flat Secondary College, Kangaroo Flat Primary School, Weeroona College, St Francis of the Fields, Upper Oval in Club Court and Eaglehawk Secondary College.
BDCA president Travis Harling said if the school venues are unavailable for use the league would need to look at playing some junior matches midweek.
"We're meeting with council on Monday to see what this could mean locally,'' Harling said.
"In terms of the BDCA it could affect junior matches as well as our fourth XI senior competition. I know this is impacting other associations around the state as well.
"Council works with the schools on the use of their venues for sports-related activities, so we'll work with them to see what the best outcome is.
"We might have to play some games midweek...it's going to be one of those seasons where we might have to make changes to our traditional formats just to make sure we get some games played."
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EVCA president Ron Gray said the league had contacted the schools involved via e-mail and was waiting for a response in relation to ground availability.
Should the school grounds be unavailable, Gray said the league and clubs would look at all options available, including playing some games on Sundays.
"We have our AGM on Monday night, so hopefully we'll know more about things then,'' Gray said.
"The grounds is a hurdle we'll jump when we get to it. It might only be a short-term problem until restrictions are eased. We'll wait and see."
The Cricket Victoria return to train and return to play guidelines put a heavy focus on hygiene and cleaning, which puts a burden on clubs and volunteers to ensure all protocols are met.
Harling said the protocols around groups of 10 at training and the cleaning of facilities would test clubs, particularly those with multiple junior teams.
"Some associations are avoiding the training issue by playing an extra junior match per week instead of having them attend training,'' Harling said.
"It might be a case of you're going to play two games per week - one on a Saturday and one on a Thursday night - instead of one game and one training session.
"That might work well for the younger age groups where the kids potentially get more out of playing an extra game than going to training.
"It's an option we might look at."
Harling said another potential issue for junior cricket was the ban on sharing equipment.
The guidelines state that no personal equipment (pads, gloves, helmet, bats etc.) shall be shared between players except if the equipment is shared by people living in the same house; or
the equipment has not been used by anyone in the past six days and is cleaned before and after use.
"We're not sure how big of an issue the sharing of equipment is...we'll wait and see what response we get from clubs this week,'' Harling said.
"We might need to revise formats for 11s, 12s and 14Bs where limited equipment is required - maybe a Master Blast style program.
"We have meetings with junior co-ordinators and clubs this week, so we'll know more about what the club preferences are around junior and senior cricket then."
The BDCA and EVCA plan to start their 2020-21 seasons on October 31.
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