21 Sept 2017
The GMCL Board met at Greenmount CC last night and as usual covered a wide range of matters and items requiring clarity for clubs and officials.
GMCL20
The quarter finals take place tonight, start time 6pm as fixtured. With the final taking place next weekend the games must be decided tonight. It is unfortunate that the weather forecast is a mixed bag for later but the games have to be decided so that we can determine a venue from the 4 semi-finalists for next Sunday.
Minimum 5 overs for DLS; otherwise a full team bowl out or toss of a coin if unfit; scorers to ensure that overs lost at the start are input into the app before play commences.
Final venue to be determined Saturday.
CUPS
Semi Final weekend for the 1st and 2nd XI cups, all 50 overs and 1pm starts and we wish all teams well. All neutral final venues to be confirmed over the weekend.
STRUCTURE FOR 2018
The Pennine Cricket League representative has confirmed that there are 17 clubs wishing to join the league. Those applications have been accepted and we look forward to welcoming them into the competition for the start of the 2018 season.
The work to visit each ground is well underway, with 9 completed already and Mike Hall and his team will move quickly to visit the remainder. This work will ensure we are able to place clubs on facilities and merit just as we did when the league was formed in 2016.
An interim statement with key points will be issued in the coming days and we are on course to deliver the plan for the revised divisional structure to add up to 34 Saturday teams on or before 31st July as we said we would. The actual placement of the new clubs will follow later when all determinations have been made.
Last night the board ratified the structure proposals made for 2018 and we will now work to prepare this for delivery to our members.
FIXTURE REARRANGEMENT OR CANCELLATION:
We have a procedure in place and all clubs should follow this. The detail is on the website gtrmcrcricket.co.uk in the League info page and this is the link to the process https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cTftZ7QYQso3QQ7JoRyzg3Rlca5ZjIKDQqV9sTWY6JU/edit?usp=sharing
PLAYER REGISTRATION
New player registration and transfers. The last time for registering new players for 2018 is midnight on 31st July 2018 and all registrations must be made on the league form here https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeLLj4z3EjU8OSG2gPEVnODh5GZUNqbxfljFOGd4RG4DS4k_g/viewform by that time to be eligible.
DISCIPLINE
Following direct communication with captains we are pleased that the number of disciplinary reports has subsequently reduced. Management of a team’s behaviour lies with the team captains and where the behaviour of players fails to meet the required standard the captain can also be banned. We trust that this will continue to improve for the benefit of the game and the officials.
RULES and REGULATIONS
We have received a couple of questions regarding “runners” being used in the league. There has been no change to the regulations around the use of “runners” in League Cricket, changes have only been made at ICC level. The GMCL Umpire’s Association have confirmed that “runners” can be used for in game injuries upon request to the umpires and it is the umpires’ decision, not the opposing captain’s decision.
CLUB UMPIRES
Club umpires are mandatory in Divisions 4 and 5 and exemption is given only where exceptional circumstances exist and the Umpires Association will try to cover exceptional events with a panel umpire where they can.
CLUB UMPIRE PAYMENTS
A reminder that where a club fails to provide a club umpire they are responsible for paying the full fee to the umpire from their opponents who does stand, the supplying club will pay the 50% uplift for standing alone. The same rules apply for payment to clubs not supplying a scorer.
cricHQ and scoring
A reminder that all senior games should be scored on the scoring app using the official cricHQ match and at least one scorer must be connected via Wi-fi or phone network to generate live scores for the league website.
It is best practice for scorers to upload the teams before they get to the scorebox and it is recommended that players details are taken from the team cards given to the Umpires before the start of the games. Umpires are authorised to share these with you for this purpose. This is good preparation and avoids the need to add players as you go along and also ensures that the team submitted on the team card is the team that is playing.
We are working with cricHQ to manage the access to live scoresheets to our clubs and members. The cricHQ team have introduced new access levels without consultation and we are working to bring back the previous level of access. E-mails have gone out from cricHQ this week regarding monthly 99p charge for access to live scorecards, we understand from discussions yesterday afternoon that this will not apply to views from our website. We remain very active in ensuring we get the best platform for our members.
Here's hoping the bad weather misses us all and we continue to provide excellent competitive cricket again this weekend