AS the debate continues about Bolton, Bury and District Football League moving to a summer season, the chairman of Westhoughton Cricket Club, Gary Dixon, has his say on the potential effect on local cricket and the town's sporting youngsters.

THE issue of summer football has been one of great controversy over the past few weeks in cricketing and other summer sporting circles.

While I can accept some of the benefits I also have serious reservations about the full impact.

Cricket and football have existed side by side for decades, working in partnership and in some cases sharing facilities.

In my 28 years of involvement at Westhoughton Cricket Club we have always actively encouraged our players to participate in both sports, and around 80 per cent of our juniors have done so.

I am also a parent of two sport mad boys, who are both involved in Bolton, Bury and District Football League, cricket, swimming, Thai boxing and any other sport I can interest them in.

Parents need to be considered as they provide the support to help their kids participate.

You cannot simply schedule sports around each other, filling up the weekly calendar and allowing little or no family time.

At some stage my own children will have to make choices, I just hope the opportunity to play both our national sports – football and cricket – isn’t removed.

So, while the approach of the BBDFL is to let kids choose not all juniors are happy to choose.

And why should they?

Kids should have the opportunity to try new activities if they want to, and without restrictions.

We often find at Westhoughton CC that kids who excel at cricket are also very good at other sports.

While the BBDFL predicts an increase in participation, this will surely be made up from other teams coming in from the outside the area. The reality is both or all sports will lose participants.

The biggest problem facing the BBDFL is facilities which, along with the fact we have just had one of the wettest winters in years, has helped this proposal gain momentum.

The majority of pitches are owned and maintained by Bolton Council, and while money is tight, more investment is required for drainage and seasonal maintenance to get the most out of what we have got.

A switch to a summer football season would require even more investment by Bolton Council, pitches would need to be cut more regularly, lines marked all year round and posts leaving up.

The pitches simply would not have time to recover and it would become far more labour intensive.

Then there is the issue of football clubs who play on cricket grounds.

The BBDFL is often quick to boast about its number of clubs and membership numbers, but does this make them any better as a league?

A recent article has quoted the Bolton Cricket League and others as being supportive of these proposals. I have yet to see evidence of this.

The feelings of the parents, and mainly the kids is being overlooked.

These plans will have a detrimental effect on the sporting diversity of kids in Bolton, and in this day and age that is very sad.