Proposal to address complaints about how cricket is played in lower Divisions
I propose that LCU introduce an annual “Spirit of Cricket” Award (not a fair play award) organised as follows and staying in place as long as problem unresolved:-
The captains of all teams in each league, below those served by umpires, be required at the end of the season to complete a brief report form grading, from say 1 – 5, the performance of his 7 opposition teams under a number of headings as determined by the executive.
As we currently have 8 team leagues, this is not a very onerous task.
This data is then collated by the LCU to use as it sees fit.
A ranking for each Club, based on an average across their teams, might be over-doing it a bit however the top ranked Club could receive an award.
I can see various other potential uses for the data for example:-
If a Club is consistently in the higher end of the rankings perhaps they are being a little too generous to the opposition
If a Club is consistently at the lower end of the rankings perhaps the LCU might like to call them in for a serious word and the Umpires association might choose to appoint match officials accordingly
The point of the proposal being to get the message across to Clubs that whilst winning is important, winning with the spirit of cricket is even more important !!