After much consideration and ongoing dialogue with club secretaries and groundsmen a decision has been taken to postpone the opening weekend's fixtures of the season. This involves Gameweek 1; an entire fixture program on Saturday April 21 and of course the following day's All-Rounder Cricket Sykes Cup and Fired Up Corporation Paddock Shield preliminary round fixtures. A full league statement as been prepared below:
Having visited several grounds, and listened to the concerns of many clubs, who due to the extreme weather have been unable to carry out the necessary preparation on their cricket fields, it has been decided to postpone ALL League and Preliminary Round Cup fixtures scheduled for Saturday 21st April and Sunday 22nd April. It may be that weather conditions improve next week, but in postponing theses fixtures at this early stage we believe that this will prevent any unnecessary damage to cricket fields, with groundsmen striving to prepare for games on grounds which have been subjected to an unprecedented amount of snow and rain in recent weeks. There may well be some clubs where play could play next weekend, but we feel that the vast majority of grounds will either still be unfit, or at best totally under prepared. An announcement will be made shortly as to the rescheduling of the League Programme (Saturday 21st April) whilst the preliminary cup round will now take place on Sunday 29th April, where a result MUST be achieved on the day.
