The O'Farrell Cup is set to return for the first time in three seasons

Cricket Albury-Wodonga Provincial have held the cup since 2018, however they haven't needed to actively defend their title since 2021.

But there are plans in place for the competition to resume with Cricket NSW southern and western area manager Luke Olsen in the belief that the O'Farrell Cup would be contested after Christmas this year.

"It'll be an after Christmas competition," Olsen said.

"The Riverina Zone has taken that over officially and at the AGM they did commit to having a post-Christmas competition.

"It'll be challenge again and Cricket Albury-Wodonga hold the O'Farrell Cup, so they'll put up an offer of challenges and whoever challenges it gets to play against Cricket Albury-Wodonga."

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The news follows on from the announcement that the Regional Bash T20 cricket competition had undergone a restructure for the 2023-24 season.

The restructure involves a name change to the Country Bash and will see the eight districts compete in a Twenty20 Competition alongside the Cricket NSW Country Championships to be held in Orange in November.

From there, the successful Northern and Southern winners will face off in the Country Bash final which is set to be a curtain raiser for a BBL game at either Giants Stadium or the SCG.

The decision means that the Wagga Sloggers are no more which leaves the O'Farrell Cup as the only possible Wagga representative competition.

Sam Perry captained the Sloggers in their last Regional Bash campaign and he admitted that it was disappointing to see the competition restructured.

"It's extremely disappointing from a regional perspective," Perry said.

"When I was coming through as a junior you looked up to the older guys that were playing rep cricket for Wagga and representing the town and without the Regional Big Bash it limits that opportunity.

"Rep cricket seems to be dying anyway but just to see this disappear off the calendar is pretty disappointing from a whole community perspective but also a playing perspective.

"Playing rep cricket is a wonderful thing and a lot of people and especially the juniors that have transformed into seniors they are going to miss that opportunity.

"From all aspects of cricket being a supporter, player or administrator it's pretty disappointing to see."

Perry has also previously played in Wagga's O'Farrell cup side and he said he was hopeful the representative competition would return this year.

"I'd love to see it," he said.

"I know it can be a bit of a burden of some of the smaller towns that perceive themselves to struggle against the bigger towns.

"But in previous years you've seen some of the smaller towns compete with the larger towns so I'd love to see it come back to it's full capacity.

"I know it's probably a bit of a challenge now at this time of year but moving forward we need to see it come back.

"It's a great thing to be a part of and yes the bigger towns probably should beat the smaller towns but it's what good stories are made from.

"Holbrook beat us a couple of years ago and they still rant and rave about it because it's a great achievement and that's what the O'Farrell cup was made on.

"It'd be great for it to come back and obviously it's not easy to organise but I think for the level of competition around here as Albury's got a fantastic competition, we've got a fantastic competition and Griffith's got a fantastic competition.

"I think it would just be great to see it come back and there be a bit of rivalry come back between the towns."

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