Cricket round-up: Anglesea named champions as BPCA cancels finals

THE Bellarine Peninsula Cricket Association (BPCA) cancelled last weekend’s grand final matches due to coronavirus concerns.

The highest placed clubs in the six different finals that were to take place have subsequently been named champions.

This sees Anglesea become champions of A1 Grade, St Leonards of A2 Grade, Jan Juc of B Grade, St Leonards of C1 Grade, Armstrong Creek of C2 Grade and Portarlington of D Grade.

St Leonards A2 Grade side will subsequently be promoted to the A1 Grade for next season.

BPCA president Ian Caldwell said after in-depth discussions with various governing bodies, it became apparent cancelling the finals was the only feasible option.

“We had consultation with Cricket Australia, Cricket Victoria, and the Victorian Country Cricket League, which are the three bodies the BPCA falls under at the various levels. We also had consultation with Marsh Insurance.

“The advice, especially from the insurance company, is that with Cricket Australia and Cricket Victoria having recommended the cancellation of cricket games, if games had continued and someone caught the coronavirus at one of the games the association and executives would then be liable.

“We did all we could to try and get an understanding of the decision-making process and to try to do as much as we could to see if the games could be held. We did everything we could, but at the end of the day we weren’t in a position to say ‘yes’ to playing.”

Anglesea had gone the through the entire A1 Grade season undefeated.

Club president Brett Kerr said it was a strange feeling to have a team win the league in these circumstances.

“It feels weird winning it that way, but we’re happy we’ve had a good year and put ourselves in that position. And if it had of been rained off it would have been the same deal.”

While some individual awards were announced, the presentation night for the league has been postponed, with the BPCA planning to work it into the 2020/21 season launch instead.