Friday, 26 June 2020:
Cricket Australia want to contact every junior club in the country before the start of the summer to bridge the gap and ensure participation rises out of the coronavirus pandemic.
Cricket should theoretically be one of the safer options for patents out of the virus, given its non-contact nature and natural social distancing in the field.
However the sport's cuts in funding do present a challenge.
While Belinda Clark's community cricket department fared the best of all in the recent round of cuts at CA, numbers have dropped on the ground in some states.
Cricket Victoria recently cut 36 per cent of its workforce, worryingly making a significant number of their regional managers and development officers redundant.
Development officers largely assist the clubs as a link between them and the state body, while also overseeing school programs and transitioning children to clubs.
"Our endeavour is to make sure we contact every junior club across Australia over the next two or three months," Clark told AAP.
"We have never done that before.
"But we need to get closer to those people to make sure they have got what they need and they are ready to go when the season starts.
"Wherever there is a gap, where there used to be a person and now there is not, we're finding ways of filling that gap.
"Making sure there is support on the phone, technology wise.
Clark is confident numbers can still increase in 2020-21.
Teams for a Sydney winter cricket competition that begins next month have gone from 107 last year to 150 this year.
CA are also ensuring teachers are equipped to deliver cricket programs in schools, particularly while restrictions stop them being run externally.
The sport is also trying to finalise a ball-management protocol for community cricket, the use of change rooms and social distancing of spectators.
"I'm quietly optimistic about what cricket can do to help society reconnect," Clark said.
"Our job is really about enabling volunteers to run cricket. They have run it for 100 years and they will run it for 100 more."
Meanwhile Clark said she would not throw her hat into the ring to replace Kevin Roberts as chief executive, preferring to remain in community cricket.
The former Australian captain had filled in as general manager of team performance last year, and had been floated by some as an option.
Former teammate Christina Matthews is seen as one of several other options, after more than eight years as chief executive of the Western Australian Cricket Association.
"She's a wonderful leader, she's done great things at the WACA," Clark said.
"I know her very well, and she would do a great job as would other people."
