South Canterbury Cricket wish to be proactive in dealing with the implications caused by the COVID-19 virus.
As such we are being continuously updated daily (sometimes hourly ) by the Chief Medical Officer for NZ Cricket as to best practice and in conjunction with the Govt Health Dept updates.
Below is correspondence from NZC and an outline of the actions they are taking and recommending. It is clear at this stage the emphasis is on restricting travel and over night stays. In Summary NZC have made the decision to:
- Cancel the remaining Plunket Shield matches
- Immediate cancellation of all NZC Camps and tournaments until further notice
- The postponement of the ANZ New Zealand Cricket Awards
- The postponement of the NZC National Governance Forum
- The postponement of the NZC Network & Participation Forum
- The postponement of the WHITE FERNS tour of Sri Lanka in April 2020
- The close monitoring of the BLACKCAPS tour of Europe and the West Indies commencing June 2020
- A hold placed on all NZC staff business travel (domestic and international), and hotel accommodation until further notice
The CCA board fully accept the actions/postponements/ restrictions outlined by NZC, and offer further measures at a Canterbury level to be actioned.
- The Canterbury Cricket awards night will be cancelled.
- Any tournament with CCA involvement where teams are required to stay over night will be cancelled.
- It is recommended to District/Sub Associations running tournaments with teams requiring overnight stays to adopt the same approach
Community Cricket at this stage is still recommended to continue as normal, please refer to the information provided by Dr Martin Swan, Chief Medical Officer NZC. The risk of transmission is low at community level, where there has been no person-to-person spread, but significantly higher in situations in which airports, air-travel and hotels are involved.
South Canterbury Cricket understands that this may disrupt our remaining club and representative season matches and will continue to monitor and follow best practice / advice, however the health, wellbeing and safety of the people involved in our game is of the highest importance.
The following planned matches or events will currently still occur
- Rep team training is still on this week
- U15 Trials Thursday & Sunday are still on
- Friday Night Competitions (C Grade & Bash) are still on
- Saturday cricket (A, B1, B2 and Colts grades) is still on
- Junior rep matches v Chch are still on this Sunday
- South Canterbury Cricket Prizegiving Tuesday 31 March 6.30 – further details TBA
Clubs – Best Practice
It is important that you endeavour to have your players follow good hygenic practices as outlined below
How to minimise the risk of getting sick at an event of any size
The most important thing to do is practice good hygiene. This means:
- covering coughs and sneezes with disposable tissues or coughing/sneezing into your elbow
- disposing of used tissues appropriately in a bin
- washing hands for at least 20 seconds with soap and water and drying them thoroughly, or using hand sanitiser:
- before eating or handling food
- after using the toilet
- after coughing, sneezing, blowing your nose or wiping children’s noses
- after touching public surfaces
- trying to keep 2 metres away from people who are unwell
- limiting alcohol and drug use (as this may affect your ability to adequately follow the advice above).
South Canterbury Cricket continue to monitor this situation with NZC support, and as further information comes to light we will communicate with you all at the earliest convenience.