THE Sunraysia Cricket Association (SCA) will not adopt a recommendation by the International Cricket Council (ICC) to make helmets compulsory across all grades.
The ICC has enforced regulations that require players to wear British standard helmets.
SCA preisdent Andrew Farlie said while he encouraged players to wear helmets it would not be enforced at senior level locally.
“At this stage it is a recommendation by Cricket Australia – it has always been compulsory in SCA cricket for juniors to wear helmets and that will remain the same,” Farlie said.
“It has now become a recommendation that all senior players wear a helmet too.
“I guess it something that will work its way through the ranks eventually when all the younger ones come through who have been used to wearing helmets.”
Cricket Australia has strongly recommended that cricket associations take all practical steps to adopt the ICC directive to mandate the wearing of British standard helmets for batting, close to the wicket fielding and wicket-keeping up to the stumps.
Farlie said he expected pressure would be put on to associations to adopt the new directive, but believed the wearing of protective gear needed to be left to individual players.
“It is really up to the individual,” Farlie said.
“I think there is probably going to be pressure for individual associations to adopt it, but it is very hard to make it a rule – just as it is not a rule to wear pads, gloves or anything like that, it’s just something that you do.
“I guess there are factors we do have being in a hot climate.
“I suppose it is one of those things you are dammed if you do and you are dammed if you don’t, but while it is still a recommendation it is not something we are going to say is a compulsory thing.
“It is is going to be up to the individual –if it is 42 degrees and you have got two spin bowlers on then the compulsory wearing of a helmet is probably going to be more detrimental to the batsmen.”
The SCA will launch its season this weekend in first and second division grades and Farlie said he was encouraged by the positive feedback received about the format changes his new board had made since taking office.
“We are in the fortunate position to have some lights go in at the Gol Gol ground now and there is a bit of a desire to make the first and second divisions a bit of an aspirational level which is why we are going down these paths of changes and just trying to encourage the development of people’s games,” Farlie said.
“We have seen at international cricket how much the Twenty20 game has helped test match cricket.
“They are scoring faster and it is becoming much more full on in the test match arena.
“We are hoping that where we have got one day and two day cricket and teams are putting up the same sort of scores over the 80 overs or the 40 overs – we are just hoping the Twenty20 format will help develop and encourage bigger scores across the different formats.
“It is the face of cricket with the youth and to have that sort of thing available to play locally will hopefully be a good thing.”
