Cricket ACT's second one-day competition of the season began in earnest on Saturday, but ran into the persistent rain that has plagued this entire summer.
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The rain settled in just after midday and never left, rendering the first weekend of the recently minted seven-round 50-over competition a complete washout.
It meant another frustrating weekend for local clubs, which were asked to vote this week on abolishing the two-day competition in favour of another one-day league due to constant Covid impacts on playing groups..
That vote won via a narrow 5-3 majority, which led Cricket ACT to develop a one-off 50-over competition. In contrast to the annual 50-over John Gallop Cup, players will wear whites and use a red ball for the rest of this summer.
Initially the league had planned to stage a three-round, two-day competition, with clubs split into pools of four.
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ANU was one of the three clubs keen to retain two-day cricket this season, but coach Andrew Dawson said he could see the positive of playing more 50-over matches.
"We only played two one dayers [due to rain] out of the whole first part of the comp," Dawson said.
"Playing one-day cricket for the rest of the summer, from a coaching perspective, at least it gives the guys more batting and more bowling.
"You lose one day to poor weather [in a two-day match], there goes one sixth of your playing time, Then you're relying on everybody else to get washed out."