Eastern Counties Sees Rule Changes To Series
The Eastern County Cricket Association today [May 30] announced rule changes to the Eastern County Cup Series leading up to the series kicking off on Saturday July 18 in St. David’s.
Association secretary Senator Diallo Rabain said, “The Eastern County Cricket Association would like to announce the following rules changes to the Eastern County Cup Series as per our Rules and Regulations:
- Rule 6.(c) – The Overs percentage allotted to the Champion and Challenger will change from 60%/40% to 55%/45%. This means that the team batting first can only bat 55% of the allotted 118 overs (65 Overs) and if the first batting team should be out before the 65 overs are up, the remaining overs will go the to the second batting team.
- Rule 8.(c) – The qualifying time a player must play for a club to qualify for their county team will change. This rule shall now read as follows:
- “A player who is Bermudian or a Bermudian Resident for (1) year and has played league cricket for a Member County Club for one (1) year, shall be eligible to play for that County club in his second year. However if the player leaves the club he will not be eligible to play County until he returns to play league cricket for that Club. A returning Player can resume playing county in the same season that he returns to the Club. Proof of League Registration is required.”
The President, Mr. Steven Douglas said, “I would like to thank all those who sat on the Rules of the Game Committee and came back with these recommendations that were accepted by the Associate Members. These changes represent a positive move forward as we look to modernize our competition.
“As the Eastern County Cup series is an integral part of our cricket culture in Bermuda, we felt that we should look to enhance our Competition while maintaining a balance of the traditions of a Competition that has been in place since that first ball was bowled in 1904. Our desire to provide a high quality series of games for our dedicated fans is of the utmost priority.
“We are confident that the changes will result in many more challenging and exciting games, and increase the chances of producing an outright winner or an exciting draw. Also, by lowering the time that players, who are ineligible due to not being born within the ECCA boundaries, have to play for an Associate’s league team in order to qualify to play County will give teams greater flexibility in team selections.”
The Eastern County Cup Series has been in place since 1904 and involves the teams from St. David’s Cricket Club, Tucker’s Town Cricket Club [Cleveland County Cricket Club], Bailey’s Bay Cricket Club and The Flatt’s Victoria Recreational Club.
This year’s series will take place at Lord’s In St. David’s and will be played on July 18th, August 15th and August 29th. The Champions, Cleveland County Cricket Club will open their defense of the coveted trophy against, Bailey’s Bay Cricket Club. The remaining fixtures will see Flatt’s play second and St. David’s play the final match.
Change is not always good but, these changes can be consider “justifiable”…
As an avid easter counties fan, it does no service to the event if a player is allowed to play for a counties team after only ONE year of playing league cricket for that club. Could you rethink that one?