October’s Rochester flood disaster has forced the town’s cricket club to alter its arrangement with former premiership coach Vibhor Yadav before the Goulburn Murray Cricket Association season has even started.
The club has shelved plans to have UK-based cricket professional return for season 2022-23, as its captain coach, just 24 hours before he was due to board a plane from London to Melbourne.
It will re-assess the situation with Yadav post-Christmas, once there is grater clarity around the progression of the town, and the club.
Yadav led the club to the 2018-19 Goulburn Murray association’s A-grade premiership before taking on the role as Director of Cricket at Wembley Cricket Club.
He was man of the match at Bendigo Country Week for the Campaspe association, in its winning final, and was leading wicket taker for the association at Melbourne Country Week.
The 31-year-old, who only two seasons ago struck three successive Division one centuries with his English club in the Hertfordshire league, also played second XI County Cricket for Northamptonshire.
Rochester Cricket club stalwart Dylan Cuttriss had to inform him the club would be unable to honour the appointment due to its ground and facilities having been decimated by the flood event.
“We were really uncertain about what was going to happen with cricket this season, then there was the concern with accommodation. There are just too many other things to prioritise,” he said.
A Goulburn Murray board meeting last night was expected to end speculation about the new season and rubber stamp a November 12 return to competition for the flood-ravaged region.
Cuttriss, who is among many prominent sporting and community leaders involved in the flood-recovery effort, is expected to be the man to lead the on-field return for Rochester.
He said the club recognised there were more significant issues than a return to sport facing the community, but after contacting members it was almost unanimous that the club should pursue a return to cricket.
“I don’t think it is for the adults as much as it is for the kids. Adults can understand the devastation, but the kids are just missing their mates,” Cuttriss said.
“We have contacted 95 per cent of our members and they all agree whatever we can do to get going again, we should do it.”
Rochester Cricket Club is also planning to start its Master Blasters junior program in the next week, filling a major void for primary schoolers who have been detached in many cased from their homes, schools and sporting clubs.
Home ground of the club, Windridge Oval, will be out of action for months due to the inundation of gravel onto the oval.
The club expects the only option for removal of the rocks, shifted from surrounding roadways by the floodwaters onto the oval, to be by hand.
Cuttriss said machinery driving across the ground would do more damage than the rocks that were creating such a headache for the club’s curators.
“We can use the Moon Oval once we have it up to standard,” Cuttriss said.
Rochester’s A-grade rarely play on the football club oval, but it is regularly used by the B-grade team.
“We will have to spend a bit of time on it, but we also have the worry of not being able to use the high school oval. That is out of action as well and it is where the juniors play,” he said.
“We will probably have to get them onto the main ground as well.”
Cuttriss said the nets had been cleaned. sprayed and broomed.
“They will be functional pretty soon, but we’ve lost a majority of our training equipment,” he said.
“Both bowling machines have been damaged and it looks like we may have to replace them.”
A new bowling machine has a $10,000 price tag, one of the reasons the club has had its two current machines for 20-plus years.
“They are old, but they hadn’t missed a beat up until this,” he said.
Sporting clubs can apply for grants, but Cuttriss said the $5000 maximum would only “touch the surface’’ of what was needed.
“I am not sure about our insurance, like most others it looks life we will be in a bit of strife,” he said.
“A couple of cricket clubs have offered donations and will let us use their facilities, including Stanhope and Moama.”
Cuttriss has also reached out to his brother-in-law, who coaches Eaglehawk Cricket Club, for support in the recovery effort.
With all the wet weather before the floods the club had only had one training night.
Cuttriss said cricketers, much like the wider community, were just looking for a bit of normality.
“Doing something we love on a Saturday afternoon is going to be important,” he said.
“It’s amazing how many people come and watch, we are hoping we can build a bit of a hub for the club to enjoy an afternoon away from everything else that is happening.”
He said it was really important for the kids to get out and get going.
“It’s especially important for the kids in Rochester who are travelling to school in Bendigo for the next month,” he said.
“Kids are just missing their mates. They don’t understand the enormity of what has happened, so our role as parents and sporting bodies is to ensure they are able to see normality sooner rather than later.
“That is especially important after what they have ensured over the past few years.”