Curators still ‘pitch in’

– Marc McGowan
CURATORS regained some control of their pitches last week after Cricket Victoria (CV) officials only a week earlier banned covers for the rest of the season.
CV officials’ change of heart gives curators permission to use covers at their own discretion on Thursday nights.
Victorian Premier Cricket manager Peter Binns said there had been some backlash from curators after the pennant committee members’ decision two weeks ago to scrap covers.
“The only change is that we’ve extended it back to Thursday night at the curators’ discretion,” he said.
“Curators were generally a little bit disappointed they didn’t have the opportunity to cover their pitches on Thursday night after they worked all week for Saturday’s game.”
The goal was to allow the increasingly hard Premier Cricket pitches around the state to receive rain during the week.
Pennant committee members will still have to give curators approval to use covers on the Friday before a match.
Binns said they were asking curators to ‘refrain from using covers at other times’, but was aware that some curators had still been using them.
“We’re not going to come down on curators like a ton of bricks, but we want them to be aware of the situation,” he said.