Forum

Rules

Rather than clubs getting into ding dongs on a forum about the interpretation of the rules what I think is clear is that there are just far too many rules at present and different rules in different comps does not help players or umpires. It was well debated last year on this forum that my own club got docked a point for going over the time limit. A rule was broken and the punishment that was set ended up costing us a share of the league. would it have changed the result on the day? no, but the impact was the same. Ironically that rule was changed this year so the result is sorted on the day. This is not dissimilar to the rule re sub fielders. The rule was broken, what is the punishment. Points lost. Does the punishment fit the crime? No. Consistency has to be applied though as "the spirit of cricket" is hard for rule makers/or rule imposers to apply consistently the letter of the law must be enforced (or so precedent would suggest).

What needs to happen? Shred the effin rule book and start again.

Premier League and cups - captains or playing reps meet in Sept and agree on rules for 2010. Majority rules

Div 1- as above

Other leagues (and this is not arrogance just practicalities) - a more straightforward set of rules are set by meeting of clubs based on rules of Div 1. Some rules may not apply such as duckworth lewis etc.

Get the game the way the players want it and if that is 3rd xi teams wanting 20 over games midweek instead of 50 over games at the weekend. Crack on, it is the promotion of cricket that is key.

I have never posted here before but after reading all this talk about bad sportsmanship I thought I would share my recent experiences im a firm believer that what happens on the pitch stays on the pitch I personally like to have a bit of banter and will shake hands with anyone afterwards win lose or draw
Last season we were due to play in the 20/20 shield but pulled out the week before it commenced as we would be unable to field a team, our 2nds were due to play a game on the same day and with phone calls being made at 11am on the Sunday were finallyn able to raise enough under 15s to field we then went on to beat the team that finished 2nd in the league and got promoted to have the points took off us because the 1sts pulled out of the 20/20 shield (personal opinion I didn’t agree with this)
A few weeks ago we were playing a match to which the opposition were struggling to bowl their overs in time and were instructed so by the umpires and were let know every over how long they had to bowl the remaining overs, but when we took the field we got to the 48th over and the game was getting quite tight next we see the opposition captain stroll onto the field as the over was about to begin walk to the umpires and ask about time we had been off for a rain break and were not instructed to my knowledge of what time we had left we were then penalised 12 penalty runs but still went on to win lets just say incidents like this make the beer taste all the sweeter!!!
Sorry to go on but the in another game I witnessed a bowler and batsman exchanging words to which the bowler push the batsman then a few balls later the batsman nick the ball behind to which the wicketkeeper catch the ball to only to drop the ball and still claim the catch to which the batsman walked anyway to calm the situation no umpires present for what reason I cannot comment as I don’t know
Just my take on things

oh boy, the forum has been busy this weekend!
i can understand the heated debate, but am annoyed that derriaghy are being dragged into it. a few facts about what happened at queensway:-
- derriaghy chasing target
- ciyms need a sub-fielder and ask if one of their spectaters can field
- captain agrees, but at no point was he told it was a first team player or better still 'the PRO!'
- the game is comfortably going derriaghy's way until the PRO takes a stunning catch to remove an established batsman
- collapse ensues and derriaghy lose by just a couple of runs.

if this is not a good example of why the rule was brought in in the first place, then i would like to know why it was brought in.

Quite a lot of nonsense being talked here, but Taito arrogant!? A bad man to have a bet with but def not arrogant!

Stuart, there is absolutely no arrogance involved in what i am saying, I would say the same if any of the top clubs had taken the same actions. If you knew me at all you would no that i am in no way arrogant about being a member of downpatrick cricket club, Yes i am very proud to be captaining the club but dont mistake that for arrogance.

All I have to say on the matter is that our seconds stuffed cregagh seconds out of sight yesterday with captain danny carson finishing with 100 not out and figures of 4 for 12. What is that called again??? Karma possibly

I find this sad people arguing over points because of a sub fielder. The rules here are long overdue an overhaul because the whole spirit of the game is disappearing.

However I have said this to officials in the NCU and publicly that the decision to void a match over every incident and infringement however minor is ludicrous. It only punishes the winning team. Every single time this happens it causes someone else to walk away from the game.

NCU must be given the power to apply a range of punishments. A written warning outlining player responsibilities, a fine, a points deduction or voiding the match should be options rather than voiding the match for every infringement.

It is called 'common sense'. Unfortunately we don't see it very often.

Re Jeff,

I wasn't re-opening the issue that Dundrum and Armagh had last season, I was merely highlighting the controversies that substitute fielders can bring about in a game.

Taito,I do not intend to get into an ongoing debate about the sub fielder issue. My/the Club's points have been made. However,your last posting just reeks of the arrogant atttitude of some of the more established senior clubs and some of their players (including yourself) when dealing with the Section 3 and 4 clubs within the NCU. A glance at the NCU Fixture book will tell you that your club are now down to three senior teams the same as a number of Section 3 clubs including Cregagh.

Stuart , with ragards your last statement, i think you will find that the NCU took the action they did because you couldnt beat our seconds on the field so you decided to get the points by reporting us.

It is laughable, the rules were broken yes, but I can guarantee you that most other clubs would have had the sense to realise that this person fielding for 2 overs did not affect the game and they were well beaten on the day by a better side and not to have such sour grapes to take the petty action of reporting us.

Yet again I have to say enjoy the points, i think we have wasted enough of our time on Cregagh Cricket Club and their obvious desire to gain points from any means possible.

By the way these are my personal views and are in no way related to Downpatrick Cricket club

Im sorry to hear about the incident at cregagh - it is worrying the depth that some clubs will stoop to for just 4 points. At the end of the day if the captain agrees at the time then he should be honourable enough to stand by his decision. Seconds cricket is primarily for young lads to learn about the game and it is worrying what lesson has been learnt here!

I have to say that this whole episode doesnt suprise me due to some of the cregaghs senior players swearing at some of our young lads when playing there for the 3rds a few years ago

With regards to Mr Catterson I think that an open forum is exactly the place for this problem to be brought to light ,as it will bring the deserved shame upon your club and hopefully stop a repeat, well done you got the 4 points but at what cost to the reputation of the club in general

GARETH , as i said i would have gave u a sub but not my call Dundrum had fielded 100 overs in 2 days they offered too let your marker field+ u refused ( i still think they should have imo) but seeing your still unhappy lets say i had taken YOUR WORD on the saturday night when i got the call that THE MALL was UNPLAYABLE Dundrum been relagated but IT WAS MY DECISION too ring Ian Houston too say we would take the UMPIRES word if game was off& informed you that we would be travelling & lo & behold THE MALL was not perfect but definitly fit too host a game on a absolute superb venue so to say your unhappy with Dundrums decision ( i was to) well think how unhappy we would been if we had taken your decision to call of a game that too most was never in doubt & was played in not very good spirits by both sides. Armagh will always be welcome in Dundrum so hopefully you & Saintfield come back up & we get the chance too play again in the mall as its one off best grounds in the north.

colin, yeah i agree that we should have known about the rule, but it is fairly obvious that cregagh did know about the rule, and knew the player was a 1stXI player as we were practising at the time and they obviously knew as they reported it. So why agree to him fielding then? Was it part of the master plan to report us all along if they lost? If so it makes the actions even more dirty and sly.

What has happened to the spirit of the game?? how can they justify agreeing to the fielder and turning round and reporting us?? As i have said before if that is how they want to get points then they can take them. I hope whoever made the decision is happy with the points cause they wouldnt have beaten our guys if they had batted twice.

That is all i am saying on the matter

Why should it matter if he's a pro - Derriaghy still agreed that he could field then changed their mind when the result didnt go their way! Still pretty unsporting of them. People will make their own minds up as to the attitude of the clubs involved!

Re Dan.

Saintfield didn't not complain because they aren't that kind of club, they didn't complain because they won the match which is quite different in fairness. Getting away from the point there though.

Seems to have been a superb Graham Cup final this afternoon, well done to Waringstown and Holywood on what must have been a tremendous spectacle. The Lawn is certainly the place to be in underage cricket.

To Gareth: if you have grounds for your allegation regarding a player for our 2nds last Saturday I ,as Chairman of Cregagh CC, would welcome the details ,with evidence, in writing.That I believe is the more honourable way to conduct such business,not on a public forum.