This comes as a result of a funding cut by Cricket NSW, who have slashed Yass District Cricket’s coffers in order to improve the game in regional areas. 

Soon-to-retire President of the YDCA David O’Brien disagreed with the decision, saying that it was “a little disappointing.” 

“Yass have been strong supporters of the Country Plate ever since it came in. And with it being a state-wide competition, it gave us the ability to play against opposition that we don’t usually come up against.” 

Mr O’Brien believes that the country competitions, although tiring for the players, prevented the cricket schedule from growing stale. 

The problem, he said, was that the local competition featured too few teams, and thus the players were more likely to become jaded after playing the same matches against the same rivals too often. 

“It [the country competitions] gave us that piece of variety that we’ll miss now,” Mr O’Brien said. 

He believes that the organisers of the Country Cup and Plate schedules did not pay adequate attention to the local commitments of each team, which is why there were numerous forfeits and rescheduled matches. 

Mr. O’Brien says this haphazardness is part of the reason that Yass was pulled from the competition. 

However, he believes that the players will not be entirely distraught by the changes to the season’s scheduling. 

“They’d be disappointed that they haven’t got that ability now to play different teams from various regions, and it’s a significant achievement to be able to make the last four of the Country Plate, which they have done a couple of times,” Mr O’Brien said. 

“Then, on the other hand, they’d probably be relieved in a way that they won’t have as many representative games to play.” 

To compensate for losing their place in the country competitions, Yass will instead look towards the Riverina Zone to ensure that their representative players “are looked after.” 

“Hopefully locally the northern Riverina will be trying to revamp,” Mr O’Brien said. 

For more information, please contact the Yass District Cricket Association via their Facebook page.