Cricket ACT plots 'innovative ways' to deal with La Nina, climate setbacks

Cricket ACT's premier grade opening round is in danger of being washed away this weekend as rain tumbles across the capital.

Twenty-five millimetres of rain was recorded in the 24 hours to Thursday morning, with more expected to fall on Friday and Saturday.

The rain is also causing havoc with preparations for the two-game Australia v England Twenty20 series at Manuka Oval next week as curators rush to prepare the venue.

But the wet-weather problems are a familiar scenario for cricketers in the region, who got through the bushfire smoke of the 2019-20 summer, the COVID-19 setbacks of 2020-21 and 2021-22 and the rain-drenched pitches last season.

The Bureau of Meteorology declared Australia was set to endure its third-straight La Nina summer, and that could spell chaos for Cricket ACT's plans.

"It's one thing we can't control. Unfortunately, Mother Nature is Mother Nature," said Cricket ACT boss Olivia Thornton.

"But one of the things that the last few seasons have taught us is that we need to be able to adjust quickly, think about things differently and look for opportunities we potentially haven't looked before.

"I hope that we have an uninterrupted season."

The ACT government closed sports grounds on Thursday and will reassess their condition on Friday morning before deciding what play can go ahead on the weekend.

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The ACT is renowned for being one of the driest areas in the nation, but even the capital is not immune to the impact of La Nina with some flooding experienced during heavy downpours of late.

For cricket at every level, an increase in rainfall obviously means match delays and cancellations, and records provided by ACT cricket statistics guru Adam Morehouse show that it has been an issue over the past two seasons.

The 2020-21 season was the wettest since 2009-10, with three full rounds washed out in the limited overs competition, as well as three Saturdays in the two-day competition, reducing them to a 50-over match or a wash-out.

Last season one round of the Twenty20 competition was washed out and there were three full rounds of the John Gallop Cup washed out or severely affected by rain. In the one-day competition, one full round was also washed out and two other rounds were impacted.

The pattern that emerged from the statistics was that seasons impacted by weather occurred on a 10-season cycle.

Shortening rain-affected matches and playing mid-week to ensure as much cricket as possible is played this season, are among the options Thornton couldn't rule out.

"It's about us thinking about how we cut things up potentially a little bit differently if we are on the back foot from a weather perspective," she said.

"All those things are on the table, and we should never not look at all our options. We'll be doing everything we can to get as many games for cricket in."

Head of Cricket at Cricket ACT Stuart Karppinen backed Thornton and said if relentless rain presented disruptions to ACT Cricket schedules - at any level - they do have the capacity to alter the duration of certain matches as they've done in the past.

The cricket boss was open to discussing with clubs about revising registration costs if large chunks of the season were impacted and there were complaints from the community, but Thornton was hopeful it would not come to that.

Rain also presented issues with pitch readiness for major fixtures at Manuka Oval, and Karppinen was keen to look at potential solutions.

"We play on turf wickets and one of the things we're looking at is how we can get more access to them," Karppinen said.

"In some regions they can get their wickets curated much earlier than we can, and we're trying to look at innovative ways of overcoming that problem and get earlier access to do the same.

"New Zealand and Tasmanian cricket have similar approaches with issues around their winters, being cold and wet. In Canberra it's traditionally drier but those places use large greenhouses or commercial marquee tents to cover their outdoor wickets and use additional heating and lighting to have pitches much earlier than normal.

"Cricket Australia have done a lot of work looking at hybrid wickets as well. There is research and development in this area and we are considering it as well - it's just at the initial stages."

Karppinen asked those in the cricket community to consider the general unpredictability of weather.

"It's just on us managing expectations, and I think the last couple of years people are much better at handling disruption with things that are out of our control," he said. "We are not in control of the weather.

"We try as much as we can to build in, shift or hold back competitions, but we're at such a premium for ground access it's really hard to juggle."

Currently Manuka Oval has a three-week window before the WBBL begins, where head of curation at Cricket ACT, Tom Fahey, will work tirelessly with his team of five others to install the pitch for the summer of cricket.

Fahey welcomed the potential of earlier access to Manuka Oval's deck as Karppinen suggested, with his curation staff to be consulted, along with the ACT government for infrastructure and facilities support, and Cricket Australia.

"We're open to new ideas and if we can get more top tier cricket, we're all for it," Fahey said.

"It's great for the community and pathways for cricket in Canberra.

"We're not using irrigation as much, which is a bonus, but it does create disease pressure.

"So putting grass under high stress, and then with heat and then rain, it creates humidity, and we've just got to be on top of our sort of fungicide programme.

"We're in for the ride and we're really excited about it really."

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