Cricket played in scorcher

By Stuart Teather
MOST of the cricket leagues across Melbourne cancelled their matches on Saturday as the city suffered under record maximum temperatures, but many games in the West Gippsland Cricket Association (WGCA) still went ahead, despite protests from some clubs.
On Friday, a majority of the clubs voted in favour of playing on the weekend, even with the extreme heat forecasts.
As a result, the WGCA committee left it up to the club captains to decide whether or not to play on Saturday.
Many of the clubs went ahead and played their games, but some, including Emerald, cancelled all their matches.
Emerald vice-president Rodney Smith said his club was not prepared to risk its players’ health.
“We have two paramedics that are involved with the Emerald cricket club, and the week before they had 180 deaths due to heat exhaustion, which is massive,” he said.
“Emerald Cricket Club is not going to put any of our players in that situation where that could possibly happen.”
Smith said he was appalled that the league left the decision to play up to the clubs.
“All of a sudden the responsibility was put on to the clubs as far as putting people’s health at risk.
“The warning from the Bureau of Meteorology was that they advised people to stay indoors and keep physical activities to a minimum.”
WGCA chairman Steve Keam said he had no choice but to leave the decision up to the clubs.
“You have delegates from every club that make decisions,” he said.
“We put out a vote to the clubs on Friday to say ‘do you want to call it off’ and the majority of the clubs decided to play the game.”
Keam said the heat policy needed to be urgently reviewed.
“We had a delegates’ meeting on the Tuesday prior where I brought up the heat policy, but none of the delegates brought up anything.”
“It will be changed, I can absolutely assure you.
“It’s going to because I’m not ever going through that again … it should be just a decision, done and dusted.”