THE chairman of Irvine Cricket Club says it was “inevitable” the domestic season would be cancelled.

Cricket Scotland recently announced that this year’s league and cup competitions would be scrapped as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Stuart McCallum said: “There was a degree of inevitability about the season being cancelled and we knew this was on the cards so it is not a massive surprise to us.

“It is very difficult to play cricket socially distanced so our sport is just going to take the hit this summer.

“The players have accepted it but they are disappointed because we spent a lot of time during the winter getting ready for the season to start and we were relatively optimistic.”

Sports such as golf, tennis and bowls are set to resume in the coming days provided social distancing measures are followed but despite this, cricket activity in Scotland remains on hold until at least July 1.

Irvine Cricket Club are hopeful that they may be able to play some friendly matches towards the end of the season but Stuart says it’s a waiting game.

He said: “There are talks about playing some friendlies in August and September but we will need to wait and see if it is possible.

“It all depends on what the government say and the appetite players of all clubs have as some players might be unwilling to take the chance to play and I accept that it’s everyone’s individual choice to make.

“For us safety is paramount and if that means we don’t play cricket at all this season then so be it.”

Stuart admits the biggest challenge facing the club is keeping the junior members engaged and involved.

He said: “The most difficult challenge for us is to keep the kids enthusiastic as they might lose out on a full year of cricket.

“In recent years we have put a lot of work into the development of kids and we want to keep that going and keep them involved.”

“We have been applying for funding and hopefully we can get back into schools to start coaching again after the summer but we simply don’t know if that will be possible.”