The St George Baseball Association will not compete in the 2020 Winter Baseball season, after consultation with the committee and teams within the association.

In light of announcements over the past few months regarding the current coronavirus pandemic and ever-changing health responses, including lockdowns, the StGBA committee put together a discussion paper on an alternate winter season, which they were hoping may be viable to continue play.

Plans were sent to each of the association's delegates, and clubs were asked to review the proposal and provide feedback, including notes on whether clubs and their teams would elect to participate in any form of competition given the current climate.

The StGBA then received and reviewed all responses from the vast majority of affiliated clubs and underwent a further revision of potential operational procedures that might be required.

Below were the findings:

• Less than 20 teams wished to proceed in any form of competition

• The teams that were happy to proceed varied in grades (1st grade through to 8th grade) making it almost impossible to create balanced and workable playing divisions

• The cleaning and sanitation procedures (and related costs) would be possibly excessive

• Operational procedures of performing “track and trace” recording of participants and spectators would prove to be difficult for some clubs to manage

Based on these issues and more, the StGBA made the decision to fully cancel its 2020 Winter season.

The StGBA will be advising Baseball NSW of the cancellation of the 2020 season so players can start the process of requesting any required refunds.