The Ballarat Cricket Association clubs have voted on their preferred format and the results will see more rounds and less two-day cricket.
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Clubs were given three options for the make-up of the 2018-19 season.
The first saw the structure stay the same, the second a slight tinkering in the break-up of twenty20, one-day and two-day cricket across the season and the third offered clubs a chance to play every team twice in the first grade, once in a two-dayer and the other a twenty20 – 11 of the 17 votes went the way of the second option.
Five clubs, one first grade team, voted for option one while one club was in favour of option three.
Ballarat Cricket Association operations officer Greg Wakeling said the biggest change in fixturing was the decrease from nine two-day matches, as seen in 2017-18, to six. While clubs will play three T20s for premiership points, those three matches also counting towards the traditional T20 Cup.
The first grade will play a stand-alone season opener one-day match on October 6, the season starting with five one-dayers followed by three twenty20s. December will see the first two-day cricket played with six of the final seven rounds being played in the whites.
Wakeling said the thinking behind the format was to bring the competition closer to an “equal” playing field, six clubs playing each other twice – up from two last season.
While fielding players for shorter formats was much easier in the early stages of the season, which are generally busy periods for players.
“It offers a little bit of everything, it caters for all clubs,” Wakeling said.
