COVID-19 Return to play update

Dear Australian Cricket Family,

Like all sporting bodies, Cricket Australia and State & Territory Associations are collectively planning for a return to play as soon as possible and we are encouraged with the recent news from the Northern Territory Government announcing its plans to lift COVID-19 restrictions in the Territory. This roadmap includes a phased return to training and play over the next month and we will work closely with NT Cricket to develop appropriate, cricket-specific guidelines for clubs and associations. These will be housed on the NT Cricket website once developed.

While this latest news is encouraging, we are still yet to confirm what the plan for returning to play will look like for winter competitions across the rest of the country. The National Cabinet has now released of a set of 15 principles along with a framework from the Australian Institute of Sport for ‘rebooting sport in a COVID-19 environment’. Over the coming weeks we will monitor how these are considered by each state and territory government and any subsequent changes to restrictions that are currently in place.

As and when restrictions are lifted, we will seek advice from medical experts including our own Chief Medical Officer, Dr. John Orchard and relevant government agencies to support the community with relevant protocols and guidelines that allow community cricket to recommence as early and as safely as possible. We will ensure that those coordinating and participating in community cricket matches, training, programs and events are provided with clear and sensible advice to protect the safety of all participants, volunteers and communities.

We will provide a further update to the cricket community no later than 15 May, 2020.

For the traditional summer cricket season, we are also working closely with other National and State Sporting Organisations to establish season guidelines to assist the transition from winter to summer codes for our respective communities and volunteers.

In related news, Australian Cricket has thrown its support behind the Australian Government’s new contact tracing app – COVIDSafe which was released to the public over the weekend. The COVIDSafe app will play a critical role in helping slow the spread of coronavirus which will mean governments can move more quickly to ease restrictions while still keeping communities safe and we can return to playing as soon as possible.

Stay safe,

Belinda Clark
Executive General Manager, Community Cricket
Cricket Australia