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.
