Club cricket in Nelson Mandela Bay has been plunged into crisis with all lower league and women’s matches being suspended indefinitely.
Last week, EP Cricket emailed its clubs, informing them that due to the lack of maintained playing fields and pitches, only premier and promotion leagues would continue, leaving an estimated 800 cricketers in the lower and women’s leagues out of action.
In the email sent by the sporting body to its clubs, EP Cricket stated the suspension would be lifted once more “clarity is obtained from the municipality” on the way forward.
The interruption stems from a lack of field upkeep at sporting facilities owned by the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality, with the domino effect being that fixtures in the men’s first to fourth leagues and the women’s league cannot be played.
In terms of the EP Cricket lower league structures, the premier reserve or first league is played over a single round of 50-over matches, while the second, third, and fourth leagues play one round of 20-over matches.
The lower leagues cater to 66 men’s teams and 10 women’s teams across the region, particularly in previously disadvantaged areas, all of which will be negatively affected by the interruption.
The number of playing venues at EP Cricket’s disposal has also drastically declined in the last decade, with those available falling from 13 in the 2013/2014 season to just seven in the 2023/2024 campaign.
As a result, the number of matches played at the lower league levels has also shown a steep decline, falling from 423 to 286 during the same period.
Despite their reluctance to speak on the record, those clubs willing to comment on condition of anonymity said the situation was far from ideal because it would severely affect their running of the game.
They hope the matter will be resolved speedily.
“I cannot blame [EP Cricket] for this as it is not entirely their fault, but one thing I will say is that this is not a new problem, and something should have been done about it a long time ago,” one club member said.
A township club representative said the growth of women’s cricket in the region was already slow, and this suspension only set them further back in their development.
“We need to try our utmost to keep our talented women cricketers in the province,” he said, speaking on behalf of the club.
“We cannot keep losing them to bigger provinces because we cannot provide the necessary structures for them to flourish.”
In an emailed response, EP Cricket president Donovan May said fixtures would be up and running again in due course but he could not provide a definitive return date.
However, May said if the municipality did not get a service provider in place next week, they ran the risk of not being able to complete their league fixtures, resulting in potential scorecard point deductions by Cricket South Africa.
“I have been assured that the supply chain processes will be concluded in the next couple of weeks and the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality is working on a comprehensive rehabilitation strategy which includes maintenance and security of the facilities in the metro,” May said.
“I am confident the [municipality] understands the gravity of the situation as the decline in the availability of sporting fields directly affects economic and growth opportunities for our local cricket talent.”
Metro spokesperson Sithembiso Soyaya confirmed the challenges faced in the upkeep of the grounds stemmed from a combination of factors within the supply chain management processes.
While he did not outline what the specific challenges were, he said they had endeavoured to resolve the matter as swiftly as possible.
“Once a service provider is appointed, we shall enhance our oversight to ensure that maintenance schedules are strictly adhered to and that any lapses are promptly addressed,” Soyaya said.
“We regret that the issue has reached a point where it affects hundreds of cricketers.
“This situation is unacceptable and we are taking immediate steps to rectify it.
“Our priority is to restore the fields to playable conditions as quickly as possible.
“Our goal is to have all cricket fields fully operational within the next few weeks.
“We are expediting our procurement process and closely monitoring progress to ensure timely completion.”
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