Cricket Shepparton has decided to form its own women’s competition with its four teams for the 2025-26 summer, exiting Goulburn Murray Cricket.
The four clubs set to join the breakaway league are Shepparton Youth Club United, Kyabram, Mooroopna and Nagambie.
The four-team competition was advocated for by Cricket Shepparton clubs and players during the AGM in late May, with a hope that reducing travel time and being able to schedule games on Saturdays will boost playing numbers and have clubs without women’s teams be more inclined to establish their own.
Kyabram Cricket Club president Paul Parsons attended the meeting where Cricket Shepparton confirmed the split from GMC and was in agreement with the upcoming shake-up to the women’s cricket landscape.
“It was just time for the Shepparton teams to align to Cricket Shepparton,” Parsons said.
“We’ve got four teams that are reasonably strong and well-established and have been in the system for a while now.
“We just thought the opportunity with the junior girls’ competition, Cricket Shepparton is trying to get off the ground, so we thought the time was right to hopefully encourage other Shepparton teams that don’t currently have (women’s) teams to explore the option probably a bit more than they probably have in the past, due to travel and other things that have deterred them.”
With a competition based purely in the Greater Shepparton region, clubs are hoping the draw will align closer with the men’s and be a lot more streamlined.
GMC faced challenges with fixturing due to the 11-team competition, but the departure of CS clubs allows for a simplified approach.
“It will see the competition be a bit more readily available and really realign with the males’ competition as well,” Parsons said.
“It will give a greater opportunity to have the men and the women playing on the same days, so that will create even more inclusiveness.
“For a club like ours, we could play the women’s and men’s on the same day and the club can then still run functions and things like that.
“It was a bit difficult with the GMC with so many teams and balancing the draw. Trying to align those things was very difficult.”
GMC is already well under way into planning the fixture for its now seven-team competition, meeting with clubs to discuss the draw and marquee games.
It’s draw will consist of 14 rounds, with each team to play each other twice and have two byes.
However, Cricket Shepparton is currently in the process of surveying players and deliberating on what the four-team league’s draw will look like.
GMC is set to feature more 35-over matches than T20 games next season, based on the desires of the player base.
The 2024-25 season delivered two 35-over rounds out of the 15 in the season.
A similar desire from CS club players could have a likewise outcome for its 2025-26 draw.
Parsons conceded there was still work to do to finalise the fresh competition, but the aims were to have the details sorted so the league is up and running by the start of the men’s season.
In the 2024-25 season, CS clubs Mooroopna and Nagambie faced off in the grand final, while SYCU and Kyabram finished fourth and 10th respectively.
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