The Newcastle Herald can reveal that months of infighting in the NCSCA, which turns 100 this year, has triggered a landslide of support for a breakaway one-day and T20 Saturday competition in the Hunter.

Insiders said there was no possible chance of reconciliation and most of the largest multi-team NCSCA clubs had already indicated their intention to move.

It now appears there will be two Saturday social cricket competitions run by separate associations.

When contacted by the Newcastle Herald on Tuesday, NDCA president Paul Marjoribanks confirmed his association was looking to expand its "one day and T20 cricket options".

He said a steering committee has been established to investigate setting up a new competition called Suburban Districts.

"We're looking for options for our existing member clubs and we've had some enquiries from incorporated cricket clubs currently playing in the C&S competition looking for another option," he said.

"This is about the NDCA expanding its operations...our member clubs would need to vote for any possible expansion."

NCSCA president Phil Northey said he was "completely unaware" of moves to set up a rebel competition.

"Until I see what their proposal is it's hard to say much...but I doubt I'd be very happy with it," he said.

"It sounds very much like a rival competition, but it depends on how they plan to set up any kind of competition they are looking at."

The renegade NCSCA clubs are some of the largest including Beresfield Memorial, Nelson Bay, Kotara, Warners Bay, Redhead and Valentine/Eleebana.

Presidents of the clubs said on Tuesday that at this stage they were unable to comment.

It's understood the new competition will expand the NDCA from 117 to at least 180 teams.

Existing district clubs will be invited to enter teams into the new competition.

A vote will be held at the NDCA annual general meeting in July to endorse the new Suburban Districts competition.

Mr Marjoribanks said he believed the two competitions could "co-exist" and the new competition was not designed to harm the NCSCA.

He said the NDCA's new competition was open to incorporated clubs and smaller clubs or teams would have to be affiliated with a larger incorporated club to join.

"This is about growing our competition," he said. "That's the driving factor. There are a lot of young kids out there who just want to play T20 cricket, we want to keep as many people involved in cricket as possible."

Mr Northey said the NCSCA had every intention to proceed with its competition "as normal".

"C&S broke away from district 99 years ago and I don't see that anything has changed," he said.

"We certainly will be running our competition as always."

A long-standing NCSCA player, who asked to remain anonymous because he did not have permission from the association to speak publicly and feared being called before the judiciary, told the Newcastle Herald that there was "huge interest amongst players in a clean slate".

"There is a widespread belief that the NCSCA board is not interested in what its members have to say," he said.

"They are not interested in anything new and the competition has been shrinking."

The Newcastle Herald has previously reported on a player-led revolution that earlier this year called for the NCSCA board to be dissolved following months of internal brawling after a string of controversial suspensions.

In a significant show of disapproval, almost half of the competition's clubs, which represent 50 of 110 teams, signed a petition calling for a special general meeting to be held to test a no-confidence vote, but the meeting was never called.

Mr Northey disputed there was widespread disquiet across the competition and described it as being driven by a "handful of clubs".

"What they did was completely illegal," he said. "You can do it but the constitution states how you do it and they didn't do it the right way.

"We advised them of the right way of doing it and they never came back to us."

Mr Northey said it was unclear when the normal annual general meeting would be held due to COVID-19.

Cricket NSW Hunter general manager Neil McDonald said he was supportive of the NDCA "looking to grow the game".

"It will challenge the C&S competition," he said.

"It will get them to consider their governance and competition model, it will get them to reflect a bit and I hope that is the case because if you are going to evolve you need to do that."

Mr Marjoribanks described the turmoil within NCSCA as bad for the game.

"It wasn't a good look, and I say that without taking any sides," he said. "It reflected on all Newcastle cricket and anything like that is not good for cricket."

The NCSCA clashes are between the old powers that have been running the game for years, and a power bloc pushing for greater financial and administrative transparency.

The bitter internal free-for all has played out in the boardroom, the judiciary and on social media, resulting in four board members who were part of the faction pushing for change - Andrew Kelly, Daniel Saunders, Grant Hutchings and Roy Capitao - being sacked from the board and handed lengthy playing suspensions.

Mr Saunders, of Kotara Cricket Club, was banned for life from the board and given an 18-month playing ban for commenting in an ugly private Facebook conversation in March 2019 in which derogatory comments were allegedly made about a board member and their family.

Mr Hutchings received a five-year ban from the board for participating in the chat, a hard copy of which was leaked to the board. He was banned from playing for the rest of the season.

Another NCSCA director, Roy Capitao, was barred for two years in August for allegedly accessing the fuel allowances of directors and last week received a second lengthy ban for involvement in the Facebook chat.

Mr Kelly, former president of Warners Bay Cricket Club, was banned for life from the board and five years from playing for using a false name to try to access information about the association's Bunnings account.

The former board members believe they have been "targeted" for asking too many questions about directors' spending, an allegation Mr Northey strongly denies.

The board's treasurer, Dave Crawford, resigned earlier this year over the "processes and transparency of how the finances in the NCSCA were being managed".

Nic Bates was handed a 12-month suspended sentence from playing and two-year ban from being a board member over his involvement in the Facebook chat. He has no plans to appeal.

It's understood some of the sentences were reduced slightly by NCSCA on appeal.

Further appeals were lodged in February with Newcastle Zone Cricket by Mr Saunders, Mr Capitao, Mr Kelly and Mr Hutchings. They are still awaiting the outcome of the appeals.

Newcastle Cricket Zone administrator Alan Nichols did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.

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