Warrnambool and District Cricket Association backs decision to cancel Saturday, Sunday cricket due to rain

Divisions one and two were cancelled on Saturday morning and a line was put through divisions three and four as well as the women's competition on Sunday morning as heavy rainfall lashed the south-west.

Association chairman Gordon McLeod said all four men's grades were scheduled to be played on Saturdays from now on as more turf wickets became available.

"We are all about wanting to play cricket and everything is in place apart from the weather which affects the grounds," he told The Standard.

"We are trying really hard to get turf wickets up ready to start so we can get Saturday cricket, which is what we aim to do next weekend, all the (senior men's grade) matches will be on Saturday.

"This rain impedes the work of the curators of the clubs to get the wickets up."

The association on Saturday morning said a decision to play would be the umpires' call at respective games.

It then put out a statement about 11.30am saying all games would be abandoned due to heavy rainfall and an ominous forecast.

McLeod said the washouts - only two of the first eight scheduled division one games have been played - were "totally frustrating".

But he said the decision to cancel was justified. Warrnambool had 33 millimetres of rain in the 24 hours from Saturday morning.

"Clubs want to know earlier rather than later and it would've been a situation where everyone had to go the grounds and there would be a lot of discussion about whether the ground was fit to play on and there's further delays involved in that," he said.

"Knowing the weather was going to be terrible that was the catalyst to it."

McLeod said the response to the call was "generally pretty good" and no official complaints had been made.

There is a clause in the competition rules where if a game is played a result stands.

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