The biggest shake-up in South East regional cricket circles in decades will be unveiled on Saturday with the launch of the newly-minted Millicent Naracoorte Cricket Association.

The seven clubs in the Millicent Association will link up with the four from Naracoorte for the 2021/22 season to form one of the largest groupings in Country South Australia.

The competition will be overseen by three experienced cricketers and administrators from the former Millicent and District Cricket Association.

Furner/Beachport Cricket Club stalwart Jason Bateman will take the reins as president assisted by Rendelsham’s Tyson Smith as secretary and Steve Duldig as treasurer.

Cricket has been a part of the South East sporting landscape for over 160 years with the first recorded match involving Naracoorte and Penola in 1860.

Round one throws up five interesting matches with Millicent Footballers having the bye.

This was requested as the Saints footballers are having an end-of-season trip to celebrate the 2021 premiership in the Western Border Football League.

Rendelsham cricketers are on the road to Wortley Oval to meet the Naracoorte Townies.

The visitors will welcome back past skipper Dylan Clough after a stint with various clubs in the Mount Gambier Association.

Clough shared the captaincy duties with Tyson Smith when Rendelsham won the Cameron DeGaris premiership shield in 2015/16.

Millicent Football Club premiership captain Jacob Carger will don the whites for Rendelsham this season.

The club expects Essendon AFL star Mason Redman to make some appearances with his home cricket base over summer.

Speaking of AFL players, new Adelaide Crow and ex-Sydney Swan Jordan Dawson played junior cricket in his home town of Robe where he retains family and social ties.

He even claimed a hat-trick as a 13-year-old on Norm Facey Oval at Millicent.

A new concrete wicket with carpet is being installed at the Robe Oval but it will not be used in round one with Robe slated to play at Kingston.

Reigning Naracoorte Association premiers Lucindale will make the relatively short trip to the Furner Oval.

The Millicent Black Hats won the 2020/21 flag and their premiership defence begins against Mount Burr at Mick and Jean Walker Oval.

Kybybolite and the Naracoorte Warriors will do battle at I.B. Edwards Oval.

Millicent Naracoorte Cricket Association president Bateman said he has mixed feelings about the move.

He still believes the sport is entering an exciting new chapter which will help create added interest, but understands it is tough to mask the glaring reason why it happened.

“It is exciting, but also quite sad we had to merge,” Bateman said.

“Naracoorte was struggling with teams pulling out, so they made a phone call to come over and merge with us, so we took them on board.

“It is challenging times for cricket at the moment because numbers are dropping off very quickly and no one wants to play anymore, which is unfortunate.

“People are just not committed enough and have found other things to do on a Saturday afternoon during summer.

“I cannot put my finger on why exactly, but we have got to remain as positive as we can.

“There are enough players who are enthusiastic enough to enjoy the game which is good and it will be exciting to play against some fresh faces and new sides.”

Bateman believed the Millicent competition could have continued, but decline in participation numbers meant the best way forward was to join forces with the teams further up the Limestone Coast.

He said a hectic couple of weeks were needed to make the transition happen.

“The Millicent competition could have survived because we had a few more sides, but some were still struggling, while the Naracoorte competition had no choice, but to go somewhere,” Bateman said.

“They did not have too many people to play against, so it has been a challenging couple of weeks to sort everything out at the last minute.

“The phone call only happened a few weeks ago, so everything has happened pretty quickly.”

Bateman is also one of the leading figures on the field for the Furner/Beachport Cricket Club and said his team also cannot avoid the struggle to field a consistent 11.

“We are struggling as well for numbers,” he said.

“Half a side is committed for a full year and everyone is a maybe.

“The team might be a mixture from week to week.”

After putting his hand up to take charge of the new cricket association and bring it to life, Bateman admitted it has taken a lot of hard work from himself and others to make it happen.

“It has definitely been challenging, but I have had a lot of help from the Naracoorte league president Michael McGurk and Graeme Smith, who have made my life a lot easier” he said.

The new competition only has one senior grade as the Millicent and Naracoorte juniors will pad up in the Mount Gambier and District Cricket Association competitions.

Bateman said the immediate focus is to get the new association off the ground, while including other grades are off the radar.

“It is purely a one grade competition because numbers are struggling to grow,” he said.

“The main aim is to maintain all the local clubs for as long as possible because we are not getting too much help from the SACA.

“We can only do what we can do.”