Minutes of a DCCL Umpires Meeting Held at Dove Holes CC on Wednesday 12th April 2023
The meeting had been called to go through with those present the changes in the Laws that apply from the start of the season as well as other issues relating to discipline and competition rules.
From the League Management Committee the President, Chairman, Secretary and Umpires Secretary were in attendance.
Changes in Laws
The Umpires Committee had been asked to look at the new laws and Mike Brown addressed the meeting. Basically only two of the new laws had a real effect on our Saturday Cricket. The first change that Umpires and Players need to be aware of is that an incoming batter does not need to cross with the outgoing batter on the field of play but must be ready to take strike at the crease within three minutes of the dismissal of the outgoing batter.
The second change is that when a batter is out caught the incoming batter at the fall of the wicket will be on strike even if the batters have crossed prior to the catch being taken. This will obviously not apply if the wicket is taken on the last delivery of an over as the non striker for that last delivery will still take strike at the start of the new over.
Duckworth Lewis
The meeting was advised that the Management Committee had decided that Duckworth Lewis will only apply to 1st Division, Bissenden Cup and 20/20 matches in 2023. This decision was made due to the fact that with the good summer of 2022 Duckworth Lewis was basically untested and therefore the committee did not feel it appropriate to roll the system out to all competitions. The Chairman advised the meeting that if a match was being scored on the Play Cricket app then the scorers will be able to produce the revised target under the system. The Chairman also advised that at the Captains meeting on 6th April the Captains present had been advised that the League felt more effort needed to be made to get two scorers at each match.
Those present were also advised that there is a Duckworth Lewis app available for smart phones. The League Rules relating to time lost and the loss of overs still applies.
20/20 Competition
The Chairman advised that there had been some confusion re the rules for the 20/20 competition in 2022 and the League would ensure that the rules for the competition would be published on the League Website.
Discipline
The Chairman advised that there was growing concern that umpires were leaving the League due to poor behaviour of players. The Chairman stated that we could not deal with the miscreants if issues of poor behaviour and dissent were not reported to the Disciplinary Panel. The new Disciplinary Process (ECB Guidelines for Recreational Cricket) is on the website. The one thing the guidelines don't quote is a time frame for a complaint to be submitted and the Chairman confirmed the following:
1) Any compliant must be in writing to the Chairman in his role as Secretary of the Disciplinary Panel within 10 days of the incident taking place.
2) Complaints should not be sent to the League Secretary or be written on the match sheet.
3) The Chairman's email address is karl.iwilliams@yahoo.co.uk
4) Any complaint must be detailed setting out when during the match the incident occurred, who was involved, what was said/done and whether any apology was proffered.
5) The Captains had been made aware that the Disciplinary Panel were going to invoke Law 41 this season with Captains who fail to control their players also being subject to the disciplinary process. Umpires are requested to confirm the what action was taken by a captain when submitting a complaint.
The Secretary stated that if umpires felt that they had dealt with an issue on the day and that no formal complaint was required they should still consider recording the incident with the Disciplinary Panel so such incidents can be kept on record.
Rule Books
The Secretary confirmed that it was hoped that League Rule Books would be available to clubs and umpires for the start of the season.
Over Rates
The Chairman advised that at the Captains Meeting it had been made clear that it was the Captain's responsibility to keep the game moving as over rates had become unacceptable. The Chairman pointed out that umpires have the right to deduct a point on the match sheet if over rates were unacceptable but clearly umpires should set out prior to the match what the Captain's responsibility was and warn the Captain during the innings if the required over rate was not being maintained,.