Horsham Cricket Association president Tony Wills said he was concerned about a decline in passion for the sport.

The Horsham Cricket Association has had decent participation this season with just two forfeits across all senior grades at the halfway point of the season. This comes after the league introduced penalties at the start of the season for any club that forfeited three or more times.

However, Wills said he was concerned people were generally less enthused about the sport in recent times.

“It’s been coming for a few years,” Wills said.

“It’s not just a local problem; it’s a cricket problem in general.

“This particular problem is statewide and goes right down to Warrnambool which has traditionally been a strong competition. You even have the situation where in Hamilton is not sending teams up to a junior cricket carnival this year, and in the past they have sent two teams every year.”

Wills believes part of the reason stems back to cricket club’s juniors.

“I think these days kids have too many things to do especially on the traditional Saturday morning,” he said.

“Kids now have to work and there are too many things that they have to put their attention to, and cricket is losing out.”

Recently the Horsham Cricket Association did not have enough numbers for an under-17s country week team, but league secretary Darren Chesterfield said there were good numbers for the under-13s and under-15s.

Chesterfield said he expected an under-17s team to return next year. However, he also said there was generally a significant drop off in participation once players reach their late teens.

“The drop off rate is considerable from probably 16 to 30, there’s a real hole there," Chesterfield said.

 “There’s a lot of guys out there that will hopefully one day return to cricket, because you can keep playing through your 40s and 50s.”

Chesterfield said there were a lot of factors that caused the drop-off such as more young people working on weekends, people travelling more and football pre-seasons starting earlier.

GRAMPIANS Cricket Association president David Turner said the problem boiled down to work and football taking precedence over cricket.

“A lot of jobs are now weekend jobs where they never used to be,” Turner said. 

“I think football is creeping into it a bit more too. 

“Players are getting paid to play and therefore they are signing contracts. Part of that is that they have to  turn up to training and a lot of the times now that’s creeping into cricket training. They are under obligation to go to football.

“It is really pushing the boundaries and cricket as a sport as well.”

Tony Wills also believed that traditional cricket was losing its appeal to the shorter forms of the game.

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“It’s a type of game where you love it or you don’t,” Wills said.

“One part of cricket that is thriving is the twenty20 cricket because it is high action, high octane and it’s over in two or three hours.

“Whereas test cricket you have a situation where a batsman might take an hour to score and there will be some good tight bowling, but the only one who loves that is the cricket purist.”

The region’s cricket associations introduced twenty20 cricket to make the sport more appealing. 

The Horsham Cricket Association introduced two twenty20 rounds for each senior grade this season. Meanwhile, the Grampians Cricket Association created a separate twenty20 competition, but to the league president’s disappointment, only four teams entered. 

”I don’t know if that is the answer,” Turner said. 

“A lot of (the clubs) don’t want to play the twenty20. What happens is your best players get to bat and bowl all the time, and if you bring some kids in all they do is make up the numbers in the fielding positions.

“I really don’t know what the answer is, we’ve been trying to work solutions.

“It’s not just our local area that’s affected by it – it’s across Australia. When we occasionally go to regional meetings the common theme is that they are struggling too, in the lower levels of senior cricket and the upper levels of junior cricket.”

Clinton Rodger who played for Aradale Cricket Club said their was one more issue being overlooked.

“It is just the decline in the population in the region and I think that is an issue people are overlooking,” Rodger said. 

“It is difficult not only for our club but all clubs in the region. Other associations are facing the same problem.

“It’s a big issue country-wide.”