Findings from independent review into Victorian country cricket released

Richards met with stakeholders from all eight country Regions, the Victorian Country Cricket League (VCCL), Cricket Australia and Cricket Victoria Regional Cricket Managers over a five-month period with the aim to assess the current condition of country cricket in the state and to examine the governance and structures impacting it.

Cricket Victoria Chief Executive Officer, Tony Dodemaide welcomed the document and said that Cricket Victoria would continue to work with the Victorian Country Cricket League, member associations and clubs around their feedback on the recommendations.

“Cricket Victoria has shared the review with the VCCL senior officials and executive in the first instance, as is appropriate, and it has subsequently been distributed by them to their member associations. We feel it is important that the review, which we stress is an independent view of Victorian country cricket, should be shared with the wider cricket community now without any amendments or modifications. We look forward to feedback and ongoing discussion on its content,” Dodemaide said.

“Separately, we recently conducted forums hosted in Hamilton, Ballarat, Bendigo, Shepparton, Wodonga, Traralgon and Mildura, on the back of our popular annual Diamonds In The Bush program, to release the Common Ground initiative. This program will also represent significant new support to country cricket in this state.

“As we await feedback from our community, we will continue to analyse the review in detail and assess the implications of its various recommendations,” Dodemaide concluded.

The full review can be viewed at http://cricketvictoria.thinkingbigbusiness.com.au/files/pages/country-cricket-review-findings/Country_Cricket_Review_2014-15.pdf