ACT Comets set to play on despite Cricket Australia pausing national second XI competition

Cricket Australia have hit pause on the second XI tournament, which features the ACT/NSW Country Comets, as officials deal with the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

However the Comets are still set to feature throughout the summer with Cricket ACT in talks with other state associations about scheduling fixtures for their second XIs.

Cricket ACT high performance manager Olivia Thornton has been working closely with Cricket NSW to bring the matches to life with other states likely to jump on board.

Officials hope to reveal a plan for the proposed matches in the coming weeks.

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"It may not be a national tournament but we can still play some bilateral cricket. We're really confident we can work out with some of the other states and play some second XI cricket this year for the Comets," Cricket ACT chief executive James Allsopp said.

Cricket Australia's amended 2021 financial year plan presented to staff today identifies cost reductions of approximately $40 million a year and a reduction of 40 roles. Interim Cricket Australia chief Nick Hockley labelled it "a difficult day for cricket".

Among the casualties for the 2020-21 season are the second XI competition, tours for Australia A teams, as well as CA XI fixtures and the national premier Twenty20 championships.

"There's still the Australian country championships. There was some talk about the country championships not going ahead, my understand is that competition will still proceed," Allsopp said.

"There are some costs we need to work through associated to that. If the country championships go ahead, we put a team back in last year and we would look to put an ACT team in again.

"It is really important, because we want our premier cricketers striving to push into that Comets team. We've seen that catapult people into first class cricket.

"Talk about Mac Wright and Matthew Gilkes, who have really come onto the scene. They all started in Canberra premier cricket and then made the Comets.

"People like Nathan Lyon and Brad Haddin became international cricketers. We want to ensure that pathway is still there and we're confident that will be the case."

Cricket Australia is committed to hosting the Sheffield Shield, WNCL and One-Day Cup in their current formats, as well as maintaining the same number of games for the WBBL and BBL.

"WNCL will not be touched, we're confident it will still be eight games plus a final," Allsopp said.

"The girls are training at the moment, there's a few new additions that we're hoping to announce over the next couple of weeks.

"Women's cricket has been on such a high on the back of the World Cup. There is no intention from anyone at Cricket Australia to touch any part of the domestic female cricket program because it has been such a great breeding ground."