POST-COVID-19 we will all need to adapt to a “new normal” – and that includes cricketers.
Cricket is a sport largely played socially distanced, the game doesn’t require physical contact between players, fielders are placed separate, and if you are batting you are most of the time 22 yards away from your nearest teammate.
But there’s little things that for most who play the sport that have been second nature.
Mildura Settlers veteran Richie Wyld, who has been a staple on the Sunraysia cricket scene since landing in Australia as an English import in 2001, says it might be hard to adjust to not being able to do certain cricketing idiosyncrasies such as using saliva to shine the ball.
“I’ll struggle with it to be honest, standing in slips, the first thing you do after you get the ball from the keeper is look at it, whack a bit of spit on it and shine it up,” he said.
“It’s certainly going to be a bit different, I know back home they started playing the weekend just gone … they have some crazy stuff.
“The slips have to be 1.5 metres apart for social distancing, the guys with jumpers and caps, they can’t give them to the umpires, they either wear it to bowl or throw it off the pitch, and even the batsmen running, they have to mark separate lines away from the wicket so they are still socially distanced.”
Wyld said it would put a new spin on how the game looks here when the season starts – hopefully in October.
“How it’s going to look is going to be real intriguing. The no spit on the ball is just a habit, but you ultimately can’t do it.
“It’s certainly going to take a bit of effort not to do it.”
Showing his own sterling individual career is not slowing down, Wyld was this week named in the Victorian Country Cricket League’s Team of the Year for 2019-20 on the back of the off-spinners’ 43 wickets at 5.42 – the best average of the bowlers picked.
No other Sunraysia cricketer had made the team since 2014-15 , according to information provided by the VCCL, although former Irymple cricketer Rhys Webb made the 2018-19 team along with that season’s joint Les Thurlow Red Cliffs Cricket Association medallist Nic Monaghan (Tempy).
“It is cool, it’s nice to be acknowledged you’ve had a half-decent year – obviously it finished pretty s***house we couldn’t play a grand final (due to the pandemic resulting in the decider being called off and ladder leader Setts awarded the premiership),” Wyld said.
“At the end of the day the SCA’s hands were tied and they couldn’t do anything.”
Settlers’ powerful lineup will look slightly different this season with a few key players set to miss.
“It’ll be a bit of a change, with Luke (Coates) going to Nichols Point, Pratty (John Pratt) going back to Adelaide, Tarque Williamson is not sure where he’s at, whether he’s going to be travelling back to play, so we will certainly have some new faces in the side – which is good,” Wyld said.
“It’s obviously exciting because we’ll get a few more juniors coming through.”
Over the past few years players, such as Wyld had dropped down the order to allow some youth to be blooded.
Big things are expected out of those types of players, with Paddy and Seamus Keogh two of the competition’s best young players.
Wyld also expected Cam Kiel to get plenty of opportunities if he remains in the district.
Kiel had a breakout year in 2018-19 opening the batting alongside Jason Morrison before finding himself out of the side in 2019-20 due to the return of Luke Stanbrook.
In the mid-range age, Setts skipper Braidyn Turner will again be expected to star – and, if he does, Settlers should still remain one of the teams to beat.
“Braidyn is as good as there is around the comp, I’d like to think we’ll be there or thereabouts still,” Wyld said.
