A cricket team’s hopes of reaching their league finals in Victoria were dashed after vandals dug up the wicket midway through a must-win game.
Kingsville Baptist Cricket Club needed victory over Sunshine Heights in their Victorian Turf Cricket Association match to finish in the top four and secure a finals berth.
But they were frustrated upon arrival at Skinner Reserve in Sunshine for the second day’s play, when they discovered the pitch had been dug up and a mysterious liquid poured onto the track.
The damage rendered the wicket unplayable and with a suitable alternative venue unable to be found, the match was abandoned and a draw declared. As such, Kingsville missed out on qualification for the finals.
“The sad thing about it – the covers were there and the covers were pulled off. Someone who did it knew what they were doing,” club treasurer Peter Hardeman told Triple M. “It looked like a shovel or a sharp object had been used.
“They had dug up areas at both ends of the pitch. It reminded me of a ploughed field. There was also an oily substance that had been poured all along the pitch.”
Overnight, Kingsville were 1-46, chasing Sunshine Heights’ total of 186, and in a commanding position to snare the crucial win.
The VTCA has offered a reward of $5,000 for any information on the vandalism.
For the record, Sunshine Heights lay second bottom in the league, and had nothing to gain from a stalemate.
Cricket Victoria chief executive Tony Dodemaide refused to point the finger of blame.
“It’s just so disappointing,” Dodemaide said. “The VTCA have offered the reward for information, which I have not heard of before. I think that is unprecedented and I welcome that decision. It’s easy to be angry and jump to conclusions but we do need evidence.
“It would be hugely disappointing to find out it is someone from the cricket family but that is the direction it is pointing at the moment given the covers were pulled back, although Skinner Reserve in the past has been subject to vandalism.”
Hardeman said he feared the damage was not merely the work of a common vandal.
“That does come across your mind, but you can’t prove anything,” he said. “The fact the covers were pulled back and it was dug up as well as bringing oil to pour on the pitch would make you think it was not just a random thing of someone walking over the oval.”
