Death to the Spirit of Cricket on the South Coast

Before the story commences, let us deal with the facts foremost:


Fact

Clause 3.4 of the S.C.D.C.A Competition Rules for 2012/13 states;

For the purpose of third and fourth grade semi finals and finals, a player shall be deemed to belong to that grade or team in which he played six of his last eight full competition matches. Where players have played less than eight full competition matches in that season, their eligibility to play in semi finals or finals must first, be confirmed by the Board.

And further;

Games played in the Association’s Competitions, (whether One or Two Day Matches) where competition points are to be allocated shall be deemed to be full competition matches.

A bye, forfeit or complete washout shall count as a qualifying game where the nominated team has been submitted on the match result form as detailed in Clause 6.2. A nominated twelfth man shall not count as a qualifying match under this clause.

For the purposes of this playing condition a ‘full game’ means when a player is listed on the Captain’s declared team sheet for a scheduled one day game or both days of a two day match (including where day one has been washed out and day two is played as a non scheduled one day game).

For Qualification purposes all selected teams will be Final and no changes to be made on My Cricket after match inputting has been made official on My Cricket, were teams have byes or washouts this will also apply, this will be monitored through My Cricket using the applications checklist.

This will also apply to teams having byes or washouts.

Fact

Clause 8.2.8 specifically states in regards to the use of an unqualified player;

Where a team plays an ineligible or unqualified player in a Semi Final or Final, the match will be awarded to the opposition.

Fact

Kiama 3rd Grade Gold had matches against Gerringong on Saturday February 2nd, 2013, and Albion Park on Saturday February 23rd, 2013 washed out without a ball being bowled.

For both of these matches, the selected team was sent by text message to all players in the days before the match was to commence.

Fact

In an oversight, for both of the above matches, the selected team was not inputted onto the MyCricket website.

Fact

On Saturday March 16, 2013, the 4th placed Kiama Gold 3rd Grade team defeated the minor premiers, Oak Flats by 110 runs to 96, in their semi-final at Oak Flats' home ground, Shane Lee Field.

Fact

Following the completion of this match, an Oak Flats player - not the Oak Flats Executive Committee - contacted an official of the S.C.D.C.A board, and asked for the result of the match to be overturned, as the Kiama team had allegedly fielded an unqualified player, as per Clause 3.4 of the Competition Rules for 2012/13.

Fact

Acting on this contact, the S.C.D.C.A overturned the result of the match, and ruled that Oak Flats would progress to the final of the 3rd Grade competition.

Once the dust has settled, it comes to light that, on the statistics available on the My Cricket website, a player that took the field for Kiama Gold in the semi-final had only had 6 matches registered to his name as having played during the season. As ruled in Clause 3.4, if this was the case, the Kiama Cricket Club would have had to ask for permission for that player to be eligible to play in the match. Where the confusion had lain was that, in the two matches that were washed out in February, that player had been named to play. With those matches being allowed to be included in the eligibility f a player for finals cricket, it meant that he had in fact 'played' eight matches during the season, and he was effectively qualified without having to ask for permission to play.

However, with those two teams not having been entered onto the MyCricket website, these two matches were not registered at an official level, which, according to Clause 3.4, was a necessity. As a result, acting on Clause 8.2.8, the match result was reversed.

The Kiama Cricket Club 3rd Grade Gold team has, for the past three years, been the breeding ground for the Kiama Cricket Club. Its charter has been based on older senior players mixing with Under 16 and Under 14 juniors in order to bring these kids into Grade cricket, learn the game under some senior players and yet still be competitive. It requires a large rotating of the player group, in order to give everyone a game. This season alone 22 players had a game in this team - not through necessity, but because of the format of the team. Next season it will hopefully be more, given the number of players graduating into Under 16's in 2013/14.

No one can suggest here that the initial fault of this situation lies anywhere but squarely at the feet of the Kiama Cricket Club. Last season, with the number of washouts that occurred, it was imperative that the teams that were chosen had to be emphasised on the MyCricket website, to ensure that the Club and the District could ascertain who was qualified for which Grade. As it turned out, with four Grades all playing semi-finals it didn't become a huge issue. But the fact that this occurred last season, and was assiduously performed at the time, meant that there is no excuse as to why it could not and should not have been correctly done this season - all the more so because without 1st and 2nd Grades making the finals this season, player eligibility was always a chance of becoming an issue. It was an oversight, and it has proven to be an expensive one.

Given all of these circumstances, even with text messages of chosen teams to use as evidence, no one could convincingly argue that the District should overrule themselves in a normal situation, and allow Kiama to play in the 3rd Grade final. According to all of the regulations as they are written, the District was well within its rights to do what they have done at the appeal against this decision by the Kiama Club.

But that is not the full story, and it is the underhanded, unsportsmanlike and villainous dealings that occurred BEFORE this match was played that need to be examined and aired, and then ruled upon in the same manner as those that have already been presented to you.

Sometime prior to this match commencing on Saturday afternoon, at least one senior and experienced Oak Flats player became aware of the team Kiama had chosen for the semi-final. Whether or not this was from the team being posted on the Kiama Cricket Facebook page at 8.56am on Saturday morning is not clear. From that information, at least one senior and experienced Oak Flats player garnered from what had been entered on the MyCricket website that, according to the figures, one Kiama player in the announced team list had not played enough matches to be considered as eligible to play semi-final cricket. With this in mind, at least one senior and experienced Oak Flats player made a call to at least one senior and long serving member of the Executive of the South Coast District Cricket Association (S.C.D.C.A). In the discussion that followed, the  board member of the S.C.D.C.A was made aware by the Oak Flats player of the apparent discrepancy in the matches played by the Kiama player. The Oak Flats player then allegedly asked the board member of the S.C.D.C.A whether they should inform the Kiama Club of this information. In return, the alleged reply from the board member of the S.C.D.C.A was "it is not up to us to sort these issues out, that is the Club's responsibility".

With this in mind, we now have a situation where at least one senior and experienced Oak Flats player, and at least one experienced and long-serving member of the Executive of the S.C.D.C.A, knew going into the semi-final between Oak Flats and Kiama that, no matter what the result turned out to be on the field, only one team would be able to progress to the final. Given that this is the case, it is almost impossible to believe that the majority of the Oak Flats team did not know about this on the day. Also, at one of the other semi-finals being played on the day, the member of the S.C.D.C.A Executive allegedly freely spoke of this information in front of other people, and was even quite flippant about the fact that the Kiama Club's 3rd Grade side might be playing their hearts out at that moment, but they had already cooked their goose. With this information, it is also difficult to believe that more people on the Executive had not already been told of this situation.

Which do you judge to be the greater of two evils?

Do you judge an experienced and long serving player, who knowingly went into a match with this information? That if they won fair and square, they deserved to be in the final - but if they lost, they could (and would) immediately appeal to the S.C.D.C.A to take the match away from their opponents because they had played an ineligible player? No doubt they would claim that they had informed the ruling body of the information they had discovered, and that their responsibility ended at that point, that it was not up to them to inform a fellow Club that this could happen.

Do you judge an experienced and long serving official of the S.C.D.C.A, who knowingly allowed a Club to choose and play a player who, with the information available to them, was to all intents and purposes ineligible? No doubt they would claim that they had competition rules in place to deal with the information they had discovered, and that their responsibility ended at that point, that it was not up to them to inform a Club under their jurisdiction that this could happen.

Why did no one - whether it be from those that discovered this information from Oak Flats, or from the District once they were informed of this information - attempt to contact the Kiama Cricket Club and question them?

In a best case scenario, the District and the KCC could have agreed, with the help of the text messages of teams, that the player in question was in fact eligible to play. Oak Flats could then have been informed of this decision, and the match could have progressed as it did, with the selected teams, and all ruled upon by the District.

In a worst case scenario, the District could have ruled that, despite the text messages of teams, the rules of the District had not been followed, and that the player was ineligible to play. In this instance, despite the fact there would have been grumblings, Kiama could have chosen a replacement player who WAS eligible, and the match could have been played where the end result would have been completed on the field, and not by disqualification and appeals and with the shattering of dreams of innocent kids who just want to play cricket.

How exactly would previous administrators of the S.C.D.C.A, respected and multi-honoured people like John O'Dwyer, Richard Boxsell and the late Athol Noble, who have dedicated their lives to the administration of the game of cricket on the South Coast, react when told that the current board (or, at least one member of that board) allowed a game to proceed in this fashion when they had information BEFORE IT WAS PLAYED that meant that there was a 50% probability that they would have to reverse the result of the match. That they allowed a game to proceed in the full knowledge that only one team could proceed to the final. That they allowed the game of cricket on the South Coast to be brought into a state of disrepute through their own inability or lack of desire to take a course of action that allowed both teams to play on an equal footing, not one where one of the teams could never advance. Is this how the District likes to run the game on the South Coast?

Some years ago, cricket at all levels brought in a preamble which was titled The Spirit of Cricket. In essence, this was to instil in all players, young and old, a sense of playing hard but fair, and that to treat the Game of Cricket with the respect it deserves.

I do not believe that there is one fair-minded person in the world, who watches or plays the game of cricket, that would agree with what has happened this past weekend in this country 3rd Grade semi-final fixture. Surely, there is not one person who believes that if a person or persons within a ruling body were aware that a team under its jurisdiction was about to play a match with an allegedly unqualified player, which in turn meant that the result of the match would become null and void should this team win the match, that they would allow this match to proceed without informing that team of the situation. Surely, there is not one fair-minded person who believes that if a person or persons from a rival Club is aware that the team they are about to play in a semi-final match is possibly about to use a player who may possibly be ineligible, that they would not share that information with that team prior to the toss being taken.

There has been zero respect shown to the Kiama Cricket Club, and in particular its 3rd Grade Gold cricket team, in this matter. An oversight on a website team list is now said to have cost them their season. Had this all been discovered the following day, when nothing could be done to change it, then this still would have been a terrible miscarriage of justice for this team. However, when it is discovered that this whole bad taste saga could have been avoided before it began, had someone - ANYONE - who knew of this situation before the match commenced come forward and made it be known, then all of this could have been avoided.

How much dignity and respect are you willing to lose in order to win at all costs? Is it worth being branded as poor losers, and have that stigma attached to you for years to come, just to have a chance to win a 3rd Grade premiership in country NSW cricket?

How much dignity and respect are you willing to lose in allowing a Club under your authority to mistakenly play a player who was allegedly ineligible? What kind of authority would ever do that, apart from one who perhaps felt vindictive against that Club, and took pleasure in seeing it have to go through this agony? What other reason would any organisation, with the knowledge they had before the event occurred, allow this game to commence under these circumstances.

At a time when it is increasingly difficult to encourage kids to play cricket when they have so many other pursuits to choose from, and to encourage adults to give up their entire Saturday to coaching and playing cricket, it is incidents like this that cruels that even further. No good at all has come from this incident. Not for the Kiama Cricket Club, who will lose disgruntled players who have sworn never to play a game of cricket under the current District board. Not for the juniors who played in that match, believing that they had made a Grade final on their own merits, but had it ripped away from them. Not for the Oak Flats Cricket Club, whose spirit of fair play has come into serious question. And certainly not for the District body, which must now live with the consequences of all of the actions that have occurred.