THE chairman of Oswestry Cricket Club is pleased about the return of regional cricket, but hopes the decision to restart the sport has not been rushed.

A return to the regional game is set for July 18, after the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) made an announcement this week.

Chris Wiseman admits he is glad to see steps towards the return of cricket but worries the decision may have been made too quickly.

“We believe the ECB guidelines will be released this week sometime,” he said.

“It’s all a bit rushed, but as far as we’re aware we’ll be starting on July 18. With regards to what format we’ll be playing under, we really don’t know.

“On the ECB pathway, we’re currently at stage four which is adapted cricket, so whether we’ll be jumping to stage five straight away, I’m not so sure.

“To be truthful, there hasn’t been much information given out to the clubs yet.

“But we’re happy it will be back, we’re a cricket club at the end of the day so we want cricket on.

“We just hope this isn’t too rushed.”

The full details of the return are yet to be confirmed, but smaller competitions will see smaller groups within leagues, made up of teams closer to each other geographically.

Oswestry have been grouped together with Wem, Bridgnorth, Shifnal, Shrewsbury and Wolverhampton, and will play each other home and away over the coming months.

Wiseman admitted surprised at the decision to start the league.

He said: “I was sat in a Birmingham League meeting four weeks ago and the general feeling was that the league was not going to be played this season.

“Then within a couple of weeks, we’re getting ready to go again.

“It’s a quick turnaround and it means clubs now need to get ready for the season quickly.”