Report of the Executive Meeting of the LCU
April 2011
Attendance: Eddie Lewis (President), Matt Sheridan, Gerry Fennell, David Cooke, John Andrews, Aideen Rice, Paul Reynolds, Jim Bennett and Mary Sharp
Apologies: Louis Hogan and Sharon Smyth
A minutes silence was held before the meeting in memory of Richard Bruton Phoenix and Wilf Rafferty Terenure who had passed away since the last meeting.
The following actions were taken at the Executive:
Business It was confirmed that Brian MacNeice will be in charge of business advertising for the Leinster Cricket Union. There is no update on sponsorship, however, it was reported that it is now less likely that the LCU will be able to attract a single major sponsor and efforts are now focussed on finding sponsors interested in specific parts of the LCU’s activities.
A major new sponsor for the Leprechaun [Primary Schools] Cup was announced. The new sponsor is Precision Electric. The two other main sponsors, LHW and NEARFM will continue to sponsor the Open Competitions and the Alan Murray 20/20 Competition respectively.
Grounds Guy Satchwell is working on costings for the new Trailer scheme being proposed for grounds equipment. It is expected that this will be ready for the May meeting of the Executive.
A new Grounds Committee is to be set up with John Andrews as Chair. The purpose of the new committee will be to review ground reports submitted by umpires and to inspect and assess grounds as required. Guy Satchwell has been nominated to the committee by the Grounds Association and Martin Russell has also been appointed. One additional member of the committee is to be sought. .
Website The new CricketLeinster website is now up and running. A small additional development of the site was agreed to provide for existing and new sponsors and to improve the mechanism for updating starring lists.
The Hon. Secretary’s Annual report for 2010 has been published on the web site.
It was noted that the Fantasy League is also up and running. All club members are to be encouraged to enter teams.
Financial Report The Hon. Treasurer reported that there was very little outstanding for 2010. The main outstanding debtor being Balbriggan who owed €710, it is expected that this will be cleared soon.
An outline budget for 2011 had been agreed at a recent finance meeting and any variation will be reported at meetings of the executive.
The outstanding bill for ground courses from 2010 has yet to be paid. A proposal that Cricket Ireland share the bill 50/50 has been proposed and is expected to be acceptable to all. In future all courses must be financed by the participants unless otherwise agreed by the finance committee and verified by the executive. [Note: this was subsequently agreed with CI]
The proposed loan structure for clubs for capital expenditure will be drawn up over the summer.
A maintenance contract for the web site at a cost of €99 a month plus VAT was agreed.
Youth / Schools The issue of young players, under 18, moving between clubs was discussed and it was decided that the Youth / Schools Section be asked to draw up:
[a] letter to clubs setting out ‘best practice’ for dealing with transfers of young players
a protocol for managers, coaches, selectors and other persons operating under the aegis of the LCU or Cricket Ireland for dealing with youth development issues that may involve young players changing clubs.
Development Arising from a recommendation from the Development Committee, a proposal has been tabled to investigate the possibility of amending the existing promotion and relegation rules [see Appendix]. This will be discussed at the May Executive Meeting.
The Executive noted that considerable progress has been made by Brian O’Rourke in supporting the establishment of new clubs. There are now eight active proposals being advanced and a number of expressions of interest. It was noted that an artificial wicket has been installed in Porterstown with support from the local authority..
Open Competitions All registrations are now on the web site. The starrings are due in next week [since completed]. A meeting has been held with the umpires to discuss the Regulations for the coming season.
Concern was expressed about the lack of the spirit of cricket on the pitch also the social scene has diminished. This was partially due to the length of time teams spent in the dressing room following matches. The President agreed to write to all the club presidents about this for display on notice boards.
The procedure for dealing with suspect actions introduced in 2010 needs to be properly set out for clubs and umpires. David Cooke agreed to look at it this.
Discipline Terenure CC have been offered a fresh hearing, relating to a disciplinary matter carried over from 2010 season, by the new Appeals Board.
Women A special event on the Future of Women Cricket was held in Pembroke CC, organised by Cricket Ireland.
Coaching A letter is to be drawn up with the agreement of the Coaches & Scorers Association on definitions of qualified coaches and the requirements in relation to child protection and garda clearance
Appendix : Proposal in relation to Promotion and Relegation
That Regluation 9.2 governing Promotion and Regulation be amended as follows,
‘9.2 Promotion and Relegation
For all divisions, the two teams finishing at the top of a league table will normally be promoted to the division immediately higher in the league structure for the following season and the two teams finishing at the bottom of a league will normally be relegated to the division immediately lower in the league structure for the following season except where the team finishing second to last in any division is a higher team in a club than the team finishing in second position of the league below. In this case only one team will be promoted and one team will be relegated.
However the Open Competitions Committee may rule against a particular promotion for such reasons as the unsuitability of a ground for a particular league or the undesirability of having two
teams from a club in the same league. Also the Committee may decide to promote or relegate team(s) other than those in the top or bottom two places and/or may promote or relegate more or less than two teams should they feel such action merited and/or in the interest of maintaining balanced league structures. Similarly the Committee may promote or relegate a team more than one league up or down respectively should they deem it appropriate"
Comment: It is the opinion of the LCU Development Committee that we need more cricket clubs in Leinster. Without new clubs and new grounds the number of people playing cricket in Leinster is restricted and the new popularity of cricket cannot be tapped. The LCU is undertaking various initiatives to aid such development.
One of these initiatives is the proposed adaptation of the strict ‘two up/two down’ rule which it is hoped will help new and smaller clubs climb up the league structure and add new teams to their club structure. The fewer teams there are in any particular club then the more they will benefit from this amendment to the playing regulations.
The new regulation will have no impact on the teams finishing at the top or bottom of a division.
A few examples of how the regulation would work are attached below.
Example 1
Bottom two in Division A
7. Bray 1st
8. Blackrock 4th
Top two in Division B
1. Dublin 6th
2. Fingal 2nds
Only Dublin 6ths Promoted, Blackrock relegated
Example 2
Bottom two in Division A
7. Bray 1st
8. Blackrock 4th
Top two in Division B
1. Dublin 6th
2. Offaly 1sts
Dublin and Offaly promoted, Bray and Blackrock relegated.
Example 3
Bottom two in Division A
7. Blackrock 6th
8. Bray 1st
Top two in Division B
1. Dublin 4th
2. Fingal 1sts
Dublin and Fingal promoted, Bray and Blackrock relegated
Example 4
Bottom two in Division A
7. Fingal 4ths
8. Bray 1st
Top two in Division B
1. Dublin 4th
2. Blackrock 6ths
Only Dublin promoted, Bray relegated