Cricketers set to say bye to bye

Fraser Coast Cricket chairman Wayne Sperling believes the new competition with Bundaberg is a positive move.

KARLEILA THOMSEN

FRASER Coast A-grade cricketers won't be stumped by what to do when their club has a bye this season.

They will be playing ball with a club in the same situation from Bundaberg.

Fraser Coast Cricket officials have given the green light to a new one-day competition with Rum City clubs to start on October 2.

The competition, which will be run separately to the Fraser Coast Cricket A-grade competition, will involve the five Fraser Coast clubs and the three in Bundaberg.

The two clubs that have the bye in each association will go head-to-head in 40-over matches.

The competition will last 15 weeks with each club playing each other once.

Fraser Coast Cricket chairman, former Brothers Shamrocks A-grade captain, Wayne Sperling, said he thought the move was a positive one.

However, not everyone agreed.

“Not all teams were for the idea due to the travel involved, but none was against playing Bundaberg teams,” said Sperling, who took on the chairman's role last month.

“Once it was explained that two Fraser Coast teams would only have to travel once while the other three would travel twice, it was agreed to give the competition a go.

“Although, if a club refuses to travel we cannot force them to.

“But just because one team might not travel for one match that was no reason to can the whole idea.

“I think this competition will help raise the standard of the game here and it will certainly offer a new challenge for our players to face.”

While Sperling was hoping the new competition would offer a new challenge, Trevor Parry, the coach of defending Fraser Coast premiers, Past Grammars, said it would offer a challenge alright – not of the cricketing kind.

“A bye was actually something we were looking forward to having,” Parry said.

“It (a bye) would enable our guys to freshen up – it would also give them the chance to spend time with their family or do something else other than play cricket.

“Travelling to and from Bundaberg also makes for such a long day and we are not like other sports where clubs can afford to hire a bus to make the trip.

“We only have one team so we will have to car pool making a five-hour game into a nine hour day.

“We are very happy with the current Fraser Coast competition and as a club we will still be aspiring to win the local premiership – anything other than that does not float our boat.”

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