IT WILL be one-day games with a two-day look to it early in the upcoming Bendigo District Cricket Association season.

While the BDCA will again play a season of entirely one-day games as the potential impacts of COVID interruptions continue to loom, the first six rounds of the season will be played using red Kookaburra balls and players wearing whites.

The first six rounds will be played before Christmas, with the remaining 12 rounds, plus finals, post the Christmas-New Year break to be played with a white Kookaburra ball and players wearing coloured clothes as is the norm for one-day games.

Having originally fixtured for a traditional season of nine two-day games and four one-day rounds, the BDCA has an over supply of red cricket balls and has therefore opted to use them early in the season in first, second, third XI and under-18 games.

"Our league is sympathetic to the challenges clubs and our greater community will face in the near future and hope this decision is something that clubs will embrace and happily accommodate to ensure we can have a fruitful season of competitive cricket," the BDCA wrote to its clubs this week.

The BDCA reverted to its all one-day format after Cricket Victoria last month recommended "only one-day and Twenty20 matches scheduled for the season".

The season that was originally fixtured to begin last Saturday will - restrictions pending - now hit off on Saturday, November 13, with round one games: White Hills v Strathfieldsaye, Sandhurst v Strathdale-Maristians, Golden Square v Huntly-North Epsom, Eaglehawk v Bendigo and Bendigo United v Kangaroo Flat.

Strathdale-Maristians will enter the season as the reigning premier after going through 2020-21 undefeated.

This season will also mark the return of Twenty20 cricket to the BDCA after one year in hiatus.

Games will be played on Wednesday and Thursday nights, largely at the Queen Elizabeth Oval, although some games will also be scheduled for Canterbury Park in Eaglehawk.

The Twenty20 fixture is still to be released, but the competition is expected to start in early December.

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