RH Corstorphine hit with 16-point deduction

Cricket Scotland's competitions committee has docked RH Corstorphine 16 points after the club breached two rules of the Lloyds TSB Scotland League.

First, RH Corstorphine registered Pallav Kumar before the start of this season as an amateur player despite the fact that he had been paid to play cricket within the past three years at Durham during 2004, thus breaching Rule 8(e). Kumar has played nine games in the league before the committee on June 14 granted him permission to play as an amateur player for the rest of the season. Secondly, on seven occasions this season, the club has fielded more than the allowed maximum of four non-Scottish-qualified players, in breach of Rule 8(b).

One point will be deducted for each game in which Kumar played prior to his being granted permission to play as an amateur. In applying this sanction, the committee has taken into account the fact that Kumar has not played as a paid player since 2004 and has accepted that the club did not deliberately breach this rule but had failed to carry out the necessary checks prior to registering Kumar.

For breach of Rule 8(b), one point will be deducted for each player over the allowed limit, such deduction to apply to each game in which the offence was committed. In this case, there were seven games in which the limit was exceeded by one player and therefore seven points will be deducted. The committee accept that the club did not intend to breach this rule but had made an honest error, and have taken this into account when applying this sanction.