AFTER many months of sweeping changes and build-up, the Hamilton and District Cricket Association’s 2023-24 season will finally get underway today with round one of the A grade competition kicking the season off.

It’s a season filled with excitement and unknowns, with HDCA president Lloyd Ilett saying it’s an exciting time for the association.

“It’s been an incredible offseason, originally it was just Portland Tigers who were interested in coming over from the PDCA, but we’re very pleased that all the member clubs got on board and decided to all move across,” Ilett said.

“To now have 12 A grade teams together, while also keeping Portland’s B grade competition local, I think we’ve gotten the best result possible.”

Teams will all go into one ladder, with the pooling system used only for fixture purposes.

“It didn’t make sense to have two pools for the ladders, if we did that you could have a situation where the second-placed side in one pool might have fewer points than the third and fourth-placed teams in the other,” Ilett said.

“We’ve tried to balance it, so each club has an equal number of games on turf and hard wicket as each other.

“We’ll keep a top four finals series, that’s what it was prior, and the clubs haven’t elected to change it.

“I’m personally not in favour of changing it to a six-team finals, but if the clubs vote on it down the track, then so be it… it’s their competition not mine.”

Ilett said he expects there to be a healthy competition between the clubs from each association when they go head-to-head.

“Tyrendarra have won the last three premierships in Portland, and College have won the last two over in Hamilton, so it’ll be a very interesting battle when they face off,” he said.

“There will be stronger teams from each town, and weaker teams from each town… it certainly looks like the move has brought people out of the woodwork, especially in Portland.”

The first nine rounds of action will be in the one-day format, with the first two-day round to be the last weekend before Christmas break.

The B grade competition will get underway next weekend, with October 14 set as the date of their round one fixture.