Although all interest will be concentrated on the sub-Continent and the forthcoming tournaments for Men and Women, there is still a lot of background work that has to be done before the domestic season begins in just 10 weeks. With this in mind the Spring General Meeting of the Leinster Cricket Unions Women’s Committee in Merrion CC was held on Monday. Attendance was sparse with 15 persons taking time to be present at this meeting; however, they did represent 8 Clubs as well as Cricket Leinster, the Umpires Association (LCUS&A) and Aaron Hamilton, Irish Coach was also there.
There were a number of points and issues up for discussion and unlike our political leaders, people did not talk over each other, shout each other down or sulk.
Start times are always an issue. Some players have to get to games from work, which is not always easy and relies at times on the kindness of work bosses and colleagues. Of course nature doesn’t help matters either. As the days start to close in, games starting mid-August or even later suffer from a lack of light. Captains have to be aware and get through overs quickly, for when it becomes unsafe the umpires will curtail a game and Duckworth Lewis will decide results. Not ideal.
This season, Leinster Senior Cup Final will be played in Merrion CC and will have a start time of 5:00pm.
Starring lists are to be enforced far more strictly with regards to time of submission and also to the content. In this regard the sooner the Women follow the Men and submit all result cards electronically the better. This will allow better reporting of results and performances as well as greater scrutiny of players and their starring list positions. There is a change in the number of players who are permitted to play on lower teams which will ease selection and also raise the quality of Division 2 & 3 cricket.
In relation to playing regulations there are few changes to last years edition and Kevin Gallagher of the LCUS&A has kindly agreed to review them before they are published on the website.
The Women will also continue to utilise the pink balls and these are available from both AP Sports and Ed Sports. This did raise one query and very quickly a solution in that in Division 1 the same make of ball should be used by both teams. It was agreed that the home side will provide balls for both innings where there is a difference.
There are no Clubs playing Women’s cricket for the first time this season, but three additional sides are being entered from existing Women’s sections. The leagues will continue as three 8 team leagues for 2016, although I personally would like to see four 6 team leagues. There is tremendous pressure on grounds as things are at the moment and a six team league would also reduce the quantity, whilst increasing the quality of the cricket being played. Our top players are expected to play international cricket, Super 3 cricket and then league and cup with their clubs. This can lead to burn-out so an eye must be kept on that.
The Super 3 tournament is to expand too with more T20 and 50 over games. There has been a suggestion that the demise of the Pilkington Cup has left some players with no 40 over cricket and that perhaps a more social 40 game could be organised for players not playing representative or youth cricket as a means of getting some recently retired players who are unwilling to commit to a full league programme back into the game. An email will shortly be circulated to ascertain the level of interest. It would not be club based, but player based with fun being of the utmost importance. If you are interested in such an event, please contact a member of the committee, or ensure a reply is sent to the circulated email.
One major disappointment was the falling through of the Cricket Ireland plan to bring over half a dozen women players from Australia to act as overseas coaches, players and inspiration to our youngsters (in age and attitude). This has now been deferred until 2017 at the earliest. It was a novel idea from Cricket Ireland and would have raised the standard and profile of Women’s cricket in Ireland.
Ciara Metcalfe will continue to tweet and post to social media, but the amount of information can be overwhelming for one person. She is looking for, for the want of a better word, correspondents from each of the leagues to update social media with news and results. If you are a person who loves their social media and would like to get involved, please contact Ciara.