Doncaster Town director of cricket James Ward fields our questions as amateur game faces prospect of cancelled season

Town enjoyed a memorable 2019 campaign, winning a Yorkshire League title for only the second time in their history.

But, like every cricket club up and down the country, the Town Field outfit have been put firmly on the back foot by the coronavirus pandemic.

The YSPL have cancelled league games for the first half of the season and hope to begin a truncated campaign on June 28.

However, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has admitted it will be "difficult" for amateur sport to return this summer due to the "level and scale of interaction".

The Free Press checked in with Doncaster’s director of cricket James Ward to get the latest from inside the Town camp in light of the Covid-19 outbreak.

Cricket is obviously cancelled indefinitely but how else have Doncaster Town CC been affected by coronavirus?

Our cricket season has been put back to start at the end of June at the moment, which is a real shame, but at the moment we’re just hoping the borough as a whole can come through these uncertain times healthy and we can all get back to some kind of normality.

Our base, Doncaster Town Fields Sport Club is currently closed.

We have also had to cancel vital fundraising and social events including a race night, bag packing event, NatWest Groundforce day and our annual sponsored walk, which were all due to take place before the season started in mid-April.

How has the club responded to the pandemic and how are you continuing to engage with members?

The club has received fantastic guidance from the YCB and leagues we take part in.

Our secretary Simon Stoker has done a great job disseminating this information to all our club members to keep them informed.

As a club we’ve put together a weekly training video for our junior members, giving them skills, drills, games and challenges to take part in on a weekly basis at home in their gardens.

This has allowed them to continue playing some cricket in preparation for the season later in the summer and also helped their parents/guardians keep them entertained at home.

We will be carrying this on for the duration of the lockdown and while we’re not able to start training and playing matches.

DTCC had been preparing to defend the ECB Yorkshire South Premier League title - how much have your plans and recruitment been disrupted?

Our recruitment has been unaffected, we had our squad assembled by Christmas and our captains for all teams in place earlier in 2020.

Our indoor training across all sections was cut short due to the virus but preparations at those sessions was of a high standard and all teams were in a good place in readiness for the season starting.

The current government and league guidance means we will be unable to bring our overseas, Aamir Jamal, back to the club in 2020.

Aamir was a huge hit both on and off the field at the club and will be sorely missed but in regards to the playing side all other clubs will be in the same boat.

How concerned are you that the entire season could be cancelled and what effect would this have on the club?

We’re trying to remain positive that we will get half a season of cricket in for all our sections.

If there is no cricket in the 2020 summer it would be a great shame, our members and local community would no doubt be affected from both a physical and mental wellbeing perspective.

If this is the case we will look to organise some indoor sessions/competitions, for seniors and juniors, in order to get some competitive cricket, as well as social opportunities, in during 2020.

Our sound business planning, led by our chairman Bill Zuurbier, will ensure we leave this pandemic still in a strong position to move forward in to 2021.