WI local: Wanderers query Fire Cup replay rules

Following is final part of a statement from the Wanderers Cricket Club over their exit from the Barbados Fire & Commercial Cricket Competition.

The matter should have been heard by the organising committee as prescribed in the rules under Rule 14. which states: "The organising committee of the BF&C Cup Competition shall be the final arbiter over any disputes or interpretations of these rules."

Thus, if this rule is invalid as evidenced by the matter not following the prescribed channel, then why have clubs not been notified of this change of rules?

The replay was set by the board for November 5, and the replay was not played due to rain.

Cockspur Wanderers wrote the BCA requesting a position on the replay on November 6, stating our disagreement with the BCA, in that we do not consider such a game a normal zonal game due to the special circumstances surrounding the game. The game should have been rescheduled.

We received a letter on November 10 indicating that the game would not be replayed under the rules of the zonal competition, two points would be awarded to each team and as a result St. Catherine rather than Wanderers would join Pickwick as qualifiers to the next round.

In fact, the lack of detailed planning and understanding of the circumstances even resulted in a quarterfinal (BET vs Pickwick) being rescheduled on the day of the game due to the fact that the run-rate result of the St Catherine/Wanderers game could have impacted this quarterfinal fixture.

We believe that the BCA board has chosen in its decision to focus on discretionary powers of match referees and umpires, which in itself is the mechanism for achieving fairness in cricket, which if not isolated by a change in the rules may well cause clubs to query the fundamental foundations of the game.

In the interest of cricket, Cockspur Wanderers do not wish to take this matter any further and we do not propose to challenge the decisions of the BCA board relative to the Barbados Fire & Commercial 2000 Competition in any other forum as they affect Cockspur Wanderers.

However, we urge the BCA to address the matters raised above in an urgent matter.

- Edward Ince, chairman - management committee, Cockspur Wanderers Cricket Club