Cricket: Pelichet Bay out, Otago Country in

Expansion team Pelichet Bay will be disbanded and Otago Country will take its place in the first round of the Dunedin one-day club competition this summer.

Pelichet Bay was formed two years ago to avoid a bye in the senior competition.

Otago Cricket operations assistant Tim O'Sullivan said the team would be dissolved and replaced by Otago Country.

"They [Pelichet Bay] have not really dropped out," O'Sullivan said.

"They were a Dunedin cricket team that we pulled in favour of a proposal from Otago Country.

"They [Otago Country] were keen to get their players out playing early this year and to have a good build-up for the Hawke Cup."

O'Sullivan added the effect of a bye was not as great with declaration cricket now played over one day instead of two.

Mark Bracewell, who helped co-ordinate the Pelichet Bay team, said the team was formed to avoid the bye and to offer playing opportunities to some of the region's students before they returned home at the end of the university year.

"They were mainly guys who were willing, on a Saturday, to help out Dunedin cricket," he said.

"I just phoned guys who I knew weren't playing for clubs or who were from out of town, hoping that they would stay in cricket.

"A lot of those guys, if they didn't play down here, would go home in November and would not have played any cricket.

"Some of those players will play for other clubs but I guess some won't play.

"Hopefully, the guys who are really keen will get out and join a club."

Otago Country chairman Malcolm Jones welcomed the decision and revealed several high-profile players would join the team for the first round of the one-day competition.

Black Cap Ian Butler, experienced Otago seamer Warren McSkimming and strike bowler James McMillan will turn out for Otago Country.

"As the board sees it, it will be a good opportunity for the players to play alongside the likes of Warren McSkimming, who has played 10 years of first-class cricket, and Butler, who is a Black Cap," Jones said.

"The guys are quite excited.

"We've lost a number of experienced players over the last couple of years and we see this as an ideal opportunity for younger guys to be mixing and gaining experience," he said, adding it would be good preparation for its Hawke Cup campaign.

It is proposed Otago Country will play all of its games at Molyneux Park in Alexandra which will mean Butler, McSkimming and McMillan will get the benefit of bowling on grass rather than the artificial surfaces which are used in Dunedin early in the season.

It is also an opportunity for Molyneux Park groundsman Wayne Walker to see how the pitch is playing.

The venue lost the right to host elite cricket at the end of the 2007-08 season and, with the University Oval in Dunedin out of commission until mid-late February due to development, it is imperative the ground regains its New Zealand Cricket warrant of fitness so Otago can schedule games at the ground.

Otago will play two one-day trial games at Molyneux Park on October 27 and 28.

The fixtures will double as a trial for the venue.

Club cricket will start on October 2 with the first of two one-day competitions.

The competition will take a break over Christmas and resume with a franchise-based twenty/20 tournament from January 8-22.

Declaration cricket will start in mid-February and wind up on March 26.