South West Cricket expected to kick off season on Saturday after lengthy weather delays

After record-breaking rain and flooding prevented the season from starting on schedule in mid-October, with washouts becoming the norm over the last month, the association - barring any late barrage of difficult weather - is preparing to finally dust off the kits and get rolling.

While some rain is predicted over the weekend, with between five to 15 millimetres expected for Saturday, Mathew told The Standard he was confident cricket would be uninterrupted.

He added grounds had sufficient time to dry through the warmer week of weather experienced so far.

"Unless we get a massive amount of rain between now and Saturday, we'll be going ahead, we've got enough of our grounds in good condition," he said.

"I went down to have a look at some of the worst ones, Boorcan probably would be lucky to get up even without rain but that would be the only one but they don't have a game scheduled this week anyway."

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He said there would be a minor alteration to fixtures with one-day games expected to be played over the next two weekends instead of Twenty20s.

"We've swapped out the T20s to play a one-day game, so we'll go down to a round robin instead of having a full round of Twenty20s," he said.

"That's given us back two Saturdays."

While clubs are keen to get on the field and put into action what can only be described as the longest pre-season imaginable, Mathew said it was vital cricket began from a social aspect.

"Clubs are all really keen to just get out there and on the park, to get that community connection," he said.

"That's the bit everyone's been missing, especially out in South West, that social interaction between teammates and opposition you've spent years playing with and against."

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