Going broke, going to Palmy or just going nowhere fast? These are some of the worrying questions being whispered in Wanganui cricket circles as another season draws to a close.
With just six teams (three club and three school) in the premier competition and some not always able to field a full team it is clear something must be done to ensure Wanganui cricket survives another season.
Professional coach Dilan Raj said a move to have Wanganui clubs play in the Manawatu competition is something that needs to be seriously looked at and he is currently working on a proposal for Central Districts cricket.
"Basically the proposal is two club teams going to Palmerston, with one of the clubs being Wanganui Collegiate. It still has to go back to Collegiate. If they don't take it maybe another club could take it," he said.
He suggested the other team may be the winner of the Wanganui competition.
"So that means we may have to restructure our league and play on a Sunday so that the best team can go to Palmerston to play on Saturday.
"What is likely to happen is all the players that want to improve their cricket will join the one strong team."
He said he hoped it will not kill the club scene.
"What is happening at the moment is the better players are saying 'look if I've got any aspirations there is no point playing in Wanganui'. What have they got here, apart from coaching structure. We need to find a way to keep our quality up.
"Maybe it's a short term solution, maybe I'm creating more problems, but at least it's a proposal where we can say 'here's an idea, let's feed off this'. At the moment we're not addressing anything for next year."
Other suggestions from Raj include having an administration person appointed for each club and the setting up of a junior coaching school to ease nine and 10-year-olds through the transition to hard-ball cricket.
"The underlying thing I could say is our administration side of Wanganui Cricket is lacking," Raj concluded.
Wanganui Cricket chairman Stuart Gill admitted there were some issues to work through but in general was happy with how the season had gone.
He said he was happy with the work done by Raj, Stuart Gillespie and Blair Jarrett with the rep side and that "they have set a good program for next season."
The current board had inherited monetary issues from previous regimes.
"At the moment we are facing a few financial difficulties, ground charges and everything else." Gill said.
"We're working on it. I don't really want to say too much about it because we have a couple of meetings coming up."
He said suggestions of a move to play in Palmerston North was "just talk" at present.
"I'm not saying that it's not going to happen, it may or it may not. There's a lot to go through before that could happen."
Both Gill and Raj have said they will be able to speak more openly on the future of Wanganui cricket in a couple of weeks once they have met with the appropriate people, including Central Districts cricket, the Wanganui Cricket board and the Wanganui Regioanl Council.
City cricket in a spin
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.