WITH many of the Hamilton and District Cricket Association (HDCA) A grade teams impacted by COVID on Saturday, the association has started planning for bigger impacts with the other three senior grades set to resume their season this weekend.

Association president, Lloyd Ilett said as it stands, all games will go ahead on Saturday, along with next week’s girls country week fixtures.

“Everything is to go ahead as per planned for home and away matches across all grades and the girls carnival,” he said.

“If clubs suffer loss of players through covid, whether having having the virus or being close contacts, we will start with calling off D grade, then C grade then work our way up until only A grade remains.

“It wouldn’t be a forfeit, we would try and re-schedule games missed for Sunday or if clubs are happy, it could be a draw, but we wouldn’t regard it as a forfeit.

“You can’t make a team forfeit for that, it is not the club’s fault.

“I do realise a lot more people are getting it in town though.”

The Western Victoria Girls Shield has already lost one team, with the possibility of other changes likely.

“We have lost Sunraysia already, their covid situation is worse than it is here and one of the clubs in Mildura asked if they could enter a team as a club in the Under-14s,” Ilett said.

“Overall, I think there is 20 or 21 teams coming, there might be a possibility of a few more pulling out, but if we postpone it, it may get worse.”

It comes as the HDCA Under-13 country week teams started their campaigns in Portland yesterday.

The association sent a third team this year on request, giving more juniors a chance to put on the Hurricanes uniform this week.

“There is an extra team, we were rung by Portland earlier in the season asking if we could put a third side in and as it stands, one of the South West teams has pulled out which means there is now no bye,” Ilett said.

“At that age level, we are more than happy to send as many teams down as that want to go, eventually I would like to see our association send two teams to each country week going forward.

“There is a huge crowd down here, the number of parents here is incredible.

“It is good for all the kids to experience that.”

Hamilton Gold opened its fixture against Warrnambool Gold at Hanlon Park, while Hamilton Green faced Horsham at Henty Park Turf and Hamilton White and Mount Gambier met at Henry Park on the hardwicket.