OXFORDSHIRE CRICKET ASSOCIATION

OCA and Cherwell League Merger Statement/Update

As many of you will know, for the past two seasons the OCA and Cherwell League Committees have been involved in lengthy discussions exploring the possibility of a merger to form one single Oxfordshire Cricket League. By July 2017 these exhaustive discussions had effectively broken down in stalemate, so the OCA Executive thought member clubs and their players should be updated on the situation, and informed what has been discussed and what the OCA views are, and where we are now.

Serious discussion started early in the 2016 season after both committees met for the first time toinitially consider partial merger and closer working. During this meeting it soon became obvious that a full merger was the best option and both committees unanimously agreed to explore a complete league merger.

A public meeting was held in Oxford where all clubs and individual players were invited to offer opinion and to give input on future thinking. Soon after, several joint sub committees were formed and tasked to form proposals in areas ranging from finance, constitution, ground standards, umpiring, sponsorship, match format, playing standards and cup competitions, to name but a few. These sub-groups met several times and formed the following outline conclusions:

  • Finance - ideas based on opening a new independent account to “self-fund” the new league allowing original committees to wind up and distribute funds to member clubs in line with original rules after approximately 2-3 seasons trial period.
  • Constitution - suggested to basically amalgamate existing constitutions into one new structure after clubs had agreed proposals.
  • Ground Standards - Cherwell have concerns over some grounds used in the OCA that do not meet CL criteria, particularly council and college grounds. Likewise, OCA feel some of the 3rd and 4th XI grounds do not meet OCA standards. Possible Senior/ Premier Category grounds were considered to overcome but not finalised.
  • Umpiring - a major roadblock issue as the OCA were insistent on neutral umpires in all games which the Cherwell feel they are unable to manage. Compromise ideas were considered but talks ceased before conclusion.
  • Sponsorship - both sides agreed that one large league was a fantastic opportunity to raise profile and generate welcome revenue that could provide serious cost savings for clubs.
  • Match Format - this is the biggest area of disagreement with OCA preferring win/lose games and Cherwell insisting on win/lose/draw games despite extending split season system and increasing pressure from ECB national playing surveys results. Whilst accepting Cherwell Division 1 occasionally feeds higher league organisations they were not prepared to consider any compromise options promoted, stalemate still exists.
  • Playing Standards - generally agreed that current OCA divisions 1, 2 and 3 compare with current Cherwell divisions 4, 5, and 6 standards but more difficult to intermix existing 2nd and 3rd XI teams lower down. However, it was felt that over an initial 2-3 season period teams would find their own level.
  • Cup competitions - not fully discussed but initial views could be playing consistent Saturday only league games and playing Cup games on a Sunday which might improve Sunday cricket generally.

Despite many hours of meetings generating very positive solutions, negotiations by July 2017 had effectively halted mainly due to only two or three issues.OCA considered a restart was not worthwhile without an attitude change from Cherwell Committee, particularly following their aggressive 2017 club recruitment campaign which illustrated that a merger was not high on their agenda.

In November 2017 the Chairs and General Secretaries of the two leagues did meet again, and at this meeting Cherwell did apologise for the way in which their sub-committee had reacted to certain issues causing the breakdown, but there is still a desire for talks to continue between the two leagues and a further meeting will be arranged in early 2018.

In summary, it is fair to say that both leagues are still keen for a merger to take place, but realised that one of the major problems with previous talks was caused by not involving our clubs more and updating them on how things were progressing. It was also felt that timescales may have been unrealistic.

As at this moment, therefore, theOCA Executive Committee’s view is that we should now put together suggestions on the major issues and then circulate these to clubs, asking for their suggestions or agreement, so that a formal detailed plan is drawn up to be discussed at ‘special meetings’ of both leagues, in the hope that a full merger could take place within two years.

On behalf of OCA Executive committee

November 2017.