Conservation groups have launched a desperate rearguard action to save a critically endangered species once found at Bellerive Oval. Announcing the campaign, Greens MP Nick McKim said only urgent steps could prevent the impending tragic loss of the all-run four.
“As a kid I remember watching Shield games here and it was always a delight to see an all-run four chirping in the morning sun,” he said. “But unfortunately the invasive boundary four has made things very precarious for the all-run four in recent years.” The last all-run four at Bellerive was accidentally captured by Queensland about nine years’ ago when Tasmanian fielder Mark Cosgrove took several hours to retrieve a ball hit to short cover.
The Greens have joined forces with conservation stalwarts Tasmanian Legside Conservancy and Still Wide, Still No-Balled to highlight threats facing the shy species. A major factor, they noted, has been the effect of climate change in the cricket community. “Advertisification of the precious outfield green belt has led to the alarming encroachment of boundary ropes at a rate of about a metre a year,” they said in a statement. The outlook was dire, they noted, as similar habitat loss has occurred at every major cricket ground in Australia.
The conservation campaign has launched a crowdfunding project to print a giant poster featuring two native Tasmanian batsmen, also an endangered species, celebrating an all-run four at Rock Island Bend. Funds will be used to support a research study into the potential reintroduction of essential habitat such as long boundaries and and keystone species including cricketers who are not baseballers in disguise.
A state government spokesperson said it was more likely that foxes were responsible for the long term decline of all-run fours and that permits would be issued to lay 1080 baits in the outfield at Bellerive Oval. After that, he said, expressions of interest would be sought for “sensitive tourism projects in the outfield area that had been locked up for too long.”
Meanwhile Scotland’s captain Jock McSporran has identified the upcoming games in Hobart as a great opportunity to advance cricket in their country. “The World Cup is an important tournament for fringe nations like us, Afghanistan, UAE and England to compete against nations who can actually play,” he said.
