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Jolly's Drinks Cornwall Cricket League                                                      

To all clubs and players

During this season, 6 club forums were held across the County to listen to the concerns and problems of players from the Inter and Standard Tiers to assist the Board in its efforts to support the ECB “Get the Game On” initiative and the LMC in its work to keep the league format and structure up to date and relevant to today’s needs.

From those comments and suggestions, the LMC, together with the Adult Cricket Steering Group, has put together a series of proposals which are now recommended for consideration to all clubs by the LMC; these proposals will form part of the Tier Meetings’ agendas and voted upon (incorporating any Tier meeting amendments) in the email ballot in October 2015 and then forwarded, if receiving 40% or more of the votes cast, to the January 2016 AGM

In addition to sending these proposals now to all Club Secretaries, the LMC is also sending to all players via email listings so that everyone has the chance to consider the proposals so that, at the Tier meetings, those representing the clubs are fully aware of their players wishes/thoughts.

Proposal Set 1: To change the Tier Structure

The purpose of the Tier structure is to facilitate changes being made by club teams playing at a similar standard so that their match format and associated administration more closely resembles their requirements and are thus capable of annual AGM change with minimal impact on teams in other Tiers. Proposal 1 consists of the following recommendations:

• That the present Tier titles (Higher, Inter, Standard) are replaced by Tiers 1, 2, 3 with the Premier Division standing alone
• Premier– playing format must be agreed annually with ECB and are only voted on by the Premier clubs
• Tier 1 – County 1 and Divs 2E & 2W – both currently play 50/50 format, any remaining variation in playing rules can be simply made
  • Secondary proposal – that the teams in Tier 1 are strongly urged to start at 1pm
  • Tier 2 – Divs 3E, 3W, 4E, 4W
    • Secondary proposal: the teams in Tier 2 are asked to consider to play a 45/45 format starting at 1.30pm
    • Tier 3 – Divs 5E, 5W, 6E, 6C, 6W, presently playing 40/40 format starting at 2pm
      • Secondary proposal:

That the present 3 region split in Div 6 be extended upwards to include Div. 5.  

NOTE: to achieve this change in Div 5 without subjecting clubs to enforced  relegation, Tier 3 will need to be reshaped with 10 teams per division from season 2016 OR such a change to Divs 5 will not take place until season 2017.

Proposal Set 2:    Wide Balls  

                      Current wide rules 18.11 & 20.9.1 for Premier and Tier 1 remain unchanged. However:

 Proposal: that teams in Tier 2 and Tier 3 use the blue lines for offside wides and umpires’ judgement for leg side wides

• • Secondary proposal: that teams in Tiers 2 & 3 cannot have player umpires who are under 18 years of age on the match day

Proposal Set 3:     Revision of rule on new registrations, loan and transfers

Registrations

Amended rule (Premier & Tiers 1 & 2) : provided that a new player’s registration is received and recorded on Play-Cricket  before the start of a league match, then that player may be selected to play immediately.

            Loans             

• That loan players may be freely exchanged between all teams in Tiers 2 & 3 on normal scheduled league match days permitting free team selection as in rule 17.4.4. Should a match in Tier 3 be mutually rearranged and played on the immediate Sunday following its scheduled league match day, then that match is also defined as being played on a normal scheduled league match day and loan players may be exchanged between teams in Tiers 2 & 3, except:
  •  No player can play for 2 league teams over the same weekend
  •  For all other rescheduled fixtures as defined in rule 17.2 and its sections, then loan players are subject to rules 17.4.5.1 and17.4.5.2.
  • Requirements concerning identification on match sheet (15.4.1) remains.
  • That current rule 15.4.1 is amended to remove the restriction on number of clubs where a loanee can play in a season.

           Transfers

           Players who have not played for their club in the previous season to automatically become “free agents” and should not require a transfer.

• That 15.2.2.2 be amended as follows: a player can be transferred to play for his/her new club provided that transfer, fully authenticated, is received and recorded on Play-Cricket by 10pm on a Thursday, then that player may be selected to play from the immediately following Saturday match day.
• That with the exception of Tier 3, there are NO transfers or new registrations after 31 July until the end of the season

Proposal Set 4:  Fixtures

• That in divisions of 10 teams (18 matches) or fewer, every effort will be made where possible to avoid matches being fixtured on Bank Holidays and will start/end the season one week later/earlier. 

Proposal Set 5:  Flexibility in Match Arrangements

            PROPOSED INCLEMENT WEATHER RULE (NEW) for Tiers 2 & 3 ONLY

• If, due to inclement weather, the Captains consider that a match of shorter duration could be played and completed, they may agree before the start of the match to reduce the overs, to a minimum of 20 overs per side.  Rule 20.2.5.1 shall apply thereafter.  

The purpose of this rule is to encourage matches to be played in a shortened format to achieve a result when a full overs match would probably be abandoned due to predicted bad weather.

• Clubs may also wish to consider removing 6 points for a cancelled match to encourage any play if possible.
• Extend 21.1.1 (mutual Sunday fixtures) to all teams in Tier 3.

Proposal Set 6:  Overs Per Bowler

 That throughout the entire  CCL, the maximum allocation of available overs per bowler to preferably be  20% as for the ECB One Day Regulations

Note – this change to the Premier this season is already attracting adverse comment as it can be argued that county bowlers cannot receive sufficient match practice restricted to 11 match overs per week. .

Proposal Set 7: Teas  

There was comment at the Forums that some clubs had difficulty in obtaining any persons to prepare tea and wished to dispense with the traditional tea altogether or have suitable refreshments at the conclusion of the match.     The LMC decided that the requirement for teas between innings should remain at present and that the tea interval should be no more than 30 mins to allow the scorers time to reconcile their scorebooks and still obtain a sensible restful interval.

However, the clubs may wish to discuss:

• As this problem is most likely in Tiers 2/3, should any rule change be limited to those Tiers?

Also considered by the LMC:

            Paperwork – after much discussion, it was recommended :

• that the LMC scrap the present ground marking system for Tiers 2/3 – the CACG   to be asked for a more suitable system not dependent on routine captains’ marking  from season 2016.
• that all match sheets to be examined by LMC for possible simplification for 2016.

August 17, 2015