ABERDEENSHIRE CRICKET ASSOCIATION

Minutes of a meeting of the Competitions Sub-committee of the Aberdeenshire Cricket Association held on Monday 2nd February 2015 at 7.00pm at the Seafield Club, Monaltrie House, Seafield Road, Aberdeen

Present:

Paul Lewis, Aberdeenshire, in the Chair

George Bews, Gordonians , Secretary

Alan Barron, Stoneywood Dyce

Howard Smith, Aberdeenshire

(Secretary’s Note: The fifth member of the committee, Ian Jamieson, did not attend the meeting)

Robin Taylor, Aberdeenshire Cricket Association

Representing Bon-Accord C.C.:

Syd Stephen

Doug Cruickshank

Taqeer Malik

David McDonald (legal advisor to Bon-Accord C.C.)

1. Preamble

The meeting had been convened in order to adjudicate on an alleged breach of Rule 13a of the Constitution of the Aberdeenshire Cricket Association in that Bon-Accord C.C. fielded Jamal Ali, of Crescent C.C. as a triallist in their match against Methlick C.C. on Saturday 2ndAugust, 2014 but did not advise David Jones, the Association Secretary, prior to the start of the match, as they are required todo under the terms of rule 13a, that Jamal Ali was to play for them.

This matter had previously been discussed by the Competitions Sub-committee who had adjudicated that there had been a breach of Rule 13a but Bon-Accord had appealed the decision on grounds of improper procedure and that they had been unable to state their case and had been denied an opportunity to present a plea of mitigation. The Competitions Sub-committee had therefore agreed that the allegation be reconsidered by the committee but that five new members should be co-opted on to the committee in order that the allegation be considered again by these five persons only.

2. Paul Lewis opened the meeting and gave a brief resume of the allegation. He made clear that the remit of the committee was only to discuss the alleged breach of Rule 13a and, if it was found proven, to decide on any sanctions that may be appropriate. It was not the function of the committee to consider the procedures by which the original hearing into the allegation had been dealt with nor should they concern themselves with the effect that any sanction might have on Bon-Accord or any other clubs vis-à-vis League positions.

He then introduced Robin Taylor who was the former Convenor of the Competitions Sub-committee and had been involved in the original hearing into the matter

3. Robin Taylor advised the meeting that on Sunday 3rd August 2014 he had received from the Association President, Phil Gill, a copy of a text that he had received from Chris Forbes of Cults Artisans to the effect that W. Ali of Banchory had played for Bon-Accord on the previous day and had scored 72.

Robin Taylor said that he had intended in any case to go to the Links on Sunday 3rd August to watch Bon-Accord and at that match he took the opportunity of asking one of the Bon-Accord players about “W. Ali”and was told that it was Jamal Ali of Crescent who had played against Methlick.

Later that day he had e-mailed Doug Cruickshank, Secretary of Bon-Accord, asking him to confirm that Jamal Ali had been registered with the Association Secretary as a triallist prior to the start of the game and he had received a reply advising that Jamal Ali had not been registered until later that evening, after the match had concluded. As a result of this information he held discussions with the other members of the Competitions Sub-committee and it was agreed that Bon-Accord were in breach of rule 13a and that they should be deemed to have lost the match and have the bonus points they had earned reduced by those points earned as a result of the runs scored by Jamal Ali thus giving them for the match a total of nine points.

Bon-Accord appealed this decision on the grounds that they had not been given an opportunity of stating their case and presenting a plea of mitigation.

Robin Taylor then advised the meeting that the allegation would be re-heard by the Competitions Sub-committee and that this committee would comprise up to five co-opted persons and these five and only these five, would reconsider the matter at a properly convened meeting

(Secretary’s Note: All correspondence regarding the co-option and the convening of this meeting had been copied to Bon-Accord and they had confirmed that they would attend the meeting)

4. At this point Robin Taylor left the meeting and the representatives of Bon-Accord joined the meeting.

David McDonald, legal advisor to Bon-Accord, stated that it was his view that the original allegation had been improperly dealt with in that the matter had not been referred to the Competitions Sub-committee by the Management Committee as required by the guidelines approved at the Spring 2014 meeting of the Association but by the President acting on his own iniative and without consultation and as there had been no other referral by the Management Committee then this meeting also had not been properly convened.

Paul Lewis accepted that procedures prior to this meeting had not been best managed but nevertheless he could see no reason why this meeting should not now deal with the matter.

5. Taqeer Malikwas then invited to detail the events prior to the start of the match.

He said that on the morning of the match they only had ten players listed to play and of these ten he knew that two players were going to have to leave early, possibly before the end of the match. He then received a call-off and he therefore contacted Crescent CC who did not have a fixture that day, and was given permission by them to contact Jamal Ali. It was arranged that he would be picked up and taken to Methlick by Syd Stephen, Bon-Accord’s match secretary.

Prior to the start of the match there were issues concerning whether or not the match should go ahead because of poor weather and whether or not the artificial pitch be used. Whilst this was on-going a number of attempts were made to advise David Jones, Association Secretary, that Jamal Ali was to play as a triallist but it proved impossible to obtain a mobile phone signal.

The game went ahead and Ali scored 72 runs out of a total of 180 as Bon-Accord chased the 178 set by Methlick.

6. Paul Lewis then stated that notwithstanding the attempts to reach David Jones there was no doubt that Bon-Accord were in breach of Rule 13a and this was accepted by their representatives.

7. David McDonald then put before the meeting a plea of mitigation on behalf of Bon-Accord.

(i) He stated that every attempt had been made to contact David Jones immediately prior to the start of the match but this had been thwarted by the lack of a mobile phone signal and therefore, at the first opportunity after the match had ended, an e-mail had been sent to David Jones regarding the registration. He also pointed out that the issues concerning the weather, the artificial pitch and whether or not spikes could be used led to a rather chaotic situation and the matter of registration of Jamal Ali was as a consequence not progressed further by any of the Bon-Accord officials

(ii) He accepted that the Bon-Accord match secretary, Syd Stephen, should have contacted the Association Secretary prior to picking up Jamal Ali but he had forgotten and that this was a simple human error.

(iii) He felt that although there had been a breach of Rule 13a there was no mal intent and they had made no effort to conceal the identity of Jamal Ali from Methlick or for that matter the Association.

(iv) On the matter of sanctions he felt that this was a minor technical breach and it should therefore be dealt with at the lenient end of the range of options open to the committee and he suggested that at most a written reprimand would suffice.

8. Doug Cruickshank pointed out that the match was held on 2nd August 2014 but this hearing was only now taking place on 2nd February 2015 and the question of a time-bar should be considered. Paul Lewis replied by stating that the original hearing had been heard timeously and, although it was unfortunate that it had taken a considerable amount of time to organise this second hearing, he was of the view that the allegation should not be rejected on that ground.

9. The Bon-Accord representatives then left the meeting and as it had been agreed by both the committee and Bon-Accord that there had been a breach of Rule 13a the committee proceeded to discuss the sanctions that could be imposed. Paul Lewis asked the other members of the committee for their views.

There followed a general discussion on the matter at which Paul Lewis confirmed that from personal experience he knew that the Methlick area did not have an adequate mobile phone service.

The consensus was that a letter of reprimand would be an appropriate sanction. Alan Barron and Howard Smith both argued that in addition there should be a points deduction equivalent to the bonus points obtained by virtue of the runs scored in the match by Jamal Ali. However it was agreed that if Ali had not scored any runs or had not batted then he would not have contributed to these bonus points and it was therefore illogical to make a link between the bonus points and the runs scored by Ali.

It was agreed that the Secretary would prepare a draft letter of reprimand which he would pass to the Chairman for approval and then to the other members of the committee for any further comment.

(Secretary’s Note: It may be that the letter of reprimand should come from the Management Committee and would therefore be drafted by the Association Secretary.)

10. The representatives of Bon-Accord were then recalled to the meeting and advised of the sanction that was to be imposed. It was agreed that until the adjudication had been referred back to the Management Committee all parties would maintain confidentiality regarding the deliberations and the outcome of the meeting

The meeting then closed at 8.40pm