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short on words now Simon? - your silence speaks volume - don't be a bitter mono-toned dinosaur and move with the huge progress in Cricket Ireland - maybe in the past a 'hired gun' rattled your stumps on numerous occasions or stroked you effortlessly to the boundary? - sounds like you didn't dig deep, train harder, improve technically & allround improve your game to take them on or be better, like many did! I rest my case...........bored by your posts here!

ref 'simon'

Sorry to jump on board and be critical of your latest entries, however your ideas are either not practical, not sensible or not thought through

1) No professionals - I believe that a young cricketer benefits from playing with players he can look up to, take example from and learn from - there is no doubt that the talented cricketers who have come through in recent years and are performing well for Ireland or in the premier league/division 1 will have benefited from playing with or getting coached by a professional. I look at the work Taimur has done at N down, the improvement in the young talent at Instonians, following Davy Jacobs and Divan Van Wyk and the confidence that the Waringstown talented top order will get from batting with Pienaar, never mind great professionals like Ninja at Lurgan etc.
To improve the level of cricket you must experince playing with better players - how else does a young cricketer get exposed to a higher level? Otherwise they will be found out when selected at representative level.

2) 'local player' - I wonder what you would do in the case of Taimur Khan, Eugene Moleon and Nigel Jones in recent years - would they have to play as professionals despite being local residents - this is clearly not fair and to treat them as anything but a local player is ridiculous.

3) 'payment of local players' - interested to know how you are going to track this one - are you going to have access to player bank accounts??

Re-dk

Thanks for that piece of quality...

I rest my case you honour...!

Simon - you have absolutely NO proof that the gasme is being runied by money? - merely your opinion (which you are entitled to) - change the record - you previously attack players who receive payment from the game etc - good luck to them & welcome to the modern era - embrace it or move to another amateur sport if you can find one? After all "money makes the World go around"............

Re - Neal

Thought I spelled it out fairly clearly...

If you read between the lines - I am suggesting that the NCU "change the rules"

As the governing body they Can cover all the bases from monies paid by clubs to the Oversea's debate...

If a rule was proposed that you had to wear polka dot pyjama's and passed at the AGM then thats what you'd wear...

Anyway thanks for your response, I give Cricket another 15 years with "theories" like yours...

The game is being destroyed by MONEY...

Legislate against it and enforce a strict transfer policy...

Oh, and a the defination of a local player - that would be someone who lives here, works here and can demonstrate ties to this country - not someone who "flits" in and out - come on Neal, that one's simple...!

Just read with interest about the new NCU Senior Cricket Working Group.
Is the make-up of the group a secret?

In Defence of the NCU

Have just read with increasing frustration the debate between Ivan McCombe and "Simon". Ivan, we may not always agree (how dull would that be) but admire your tireless efforts for your club and the game in general. I would really like to address some of the matters alleged by "Simon".

In your posting of July 3rd you criticise players for a lack of loyalty to their clubs (with you so far). You then go on to say "the blame should be placed squarely on the NCU's shoulders". You do not explain this damning statement. Not entirely clear how the NCU is at fault for a lack of individual loyalty? Is that not a matter for individuals who might even have very good reasons for changing clubs. Just looked at the list of transfers approved by the NCU on the website - not sure many have moved for money.

However, in fairness, having made the swingeing allegation (without any explanation, evidence, proof, argument - sound or otherwise) you return to the forum on July 4th. We have a statement that you disagree with a lot of the "NCU's diagnosis". Fair play. You then agree that we have to address questions of start times, duration "etc etc", and the only matter you raise is the "single most destructive element in the game - MONEY". Ehm, what's that got to do with the NCU? I know we don't have any.

You make the point as to how a young cricketer might react if he cannot develop into a team because they simply buy in another player. True. But again - the finances of individual clubs are not the responsibility of the NCU.

Bit of a logical problem with the next bit though. Why should older alicadoos hand over their money to facilitate these people, but at the same time there is now "boundless amounts of cash". Someone must be handing it over then. Any chance they could hand some to us?

There are many misconceptions about the NCU and our beloved game. I frankly am not aware of these clubs with "boundless amounts of cash". There are certainly clubs supported by wealthy individuals who benefit from their largess. What power do the NCU have to tell individuals they cannot spend their money how they please? That is a whole different philosophical debate - equal distribution of wealth and all that.

You do come up with the answer though. Thank goodness because we have all missed it for so long. It must be all the "irrational hysteria" you mention that we are getting "carried away with". Yes the answer is TO BAN ALL OVERSEAS PLAYERS OR AT LEAST LIMIT TO ONE - WITH NONE BELOW THE PREMIER LEVEL.

Excellent. That's that sorted then. Oh, just so as we know and can then enforce it - please define "local" as in "local player". Let's see just how easy it is.

Lisburn CCs 175 anniversary continues on Friday with a NCU Junior League 1 Select side taking on Lisburn 2s. The NCU team is captained by Ricky Finlay who joins Richard White, Colin Storey, Alan Waite, Peter Haire and others in a 35 over contest starting at 2pm (ish). Admission is free and the bar will be open so if anyone wants to come along for an afternoon of decent cricket and no little banter, you will be very welcome at Wallace Park.

Ref Ivan - got a club or two like you thank you - your passion is to be admired tho not unique as replicated/shared by many throughout the cricketing fraternity in Ireland. NB - in reality there haven't been many jaffas bowled at Moylena last decade or so..........

Davy VCC. Media coverage.

Alister Bushe now gives cricket 4 pages in the News Letter on a Monday , at least two on a Saturday and runs a very up to date Twitter service along with others.Hopefully next season we can have a twitter report every 5 overs from every game. This website and the " other channel " as it's referred to must get a lot of views every week. The NCU website has a twitter feed and a fairly up to date results service. Cricket Ireland maybe do need to get Tweeting a bit more and should consult with Twitter's recognized leading cricket authority Philip Wilson of CSNI and get a Fan page on Facebook. TV and radio aren't just as important in today's online age.
I agree the under age cricketers should be encouraged to the ODI's.
Maybe the starting time debate needs to be changed to a finishing time debate and then work backwords. Do we want to finish at 6pm , 6.30pm or 7pm ? I attended a Lancashire Central League game last year and they must bowl 50 overs in 2 hours 45 mins.Can we save half an hour "within" the game time ?.
The pa system at The Lawn is an excellent example of what is needed.
Did the Irish management get it wrong allowing so many players to play the day prior to an ODI ? We can't afford to take anyone too lightly.

Just home from a superb days cricket at Stormont after having had the pleasure of watching a day and a halfs superb cricket at the Lawn on Saturday afternoon and sunday (not going to say too much about our trip to Dungannon lol).
The question about here for "Non cricketing reasons" can be used and abused by clubs that feel that it is in there best interests, however, our club captain was born in Australia, not is married to a local girl, lives in Waringstown and works full time in Belfast.
Should he be deprived the enjoyment of playing the sport he loves because he is now living elsewhere? Not sure how the Race relations board would view that.
With regards to the earlier start times, last saturday our skipper was promoted to the firsts, the Vice was unavailable through work so I volunteered to step in, after the rain through the week, i got up at 8.30 to inspect the pitch at 9.30 to enable the opposition to be informed before they had travelled and our side before the had made sandwhiches etc. that was for a 1pm start.
This saturday I left the house at 10am to go and pick up two young lads who have moved to Dromore and cant drive, one was playing for our firsts, the other for our seconds, this was for a noon start at an easy ground for us to get to. If these are 11am starts next season, I will not be playing so someone else will have to do the early starts, or people will travel to find pitches waterlogged, a day wasted and nothing will stop people playing quicker.
About 4 or 5 of our players work on a saturday morning but can usually manage to get away to be at the ground for 12 - 12:30, another works nights on a friday but is willing to get up about noon to play home games, another 5 potential players lost to the game in just one club.
Schoolboys that play on a saturday morning for their school will have no chance to play for their clubs in the afternoon with 11am starts, so more players potentially being lost to the game if this gets the go ahead.

Ivan has said that the game is getting more and more press coverage, I would like to know where, where was the advertising and press coverage in the run up to todays game at Stormont? where was the marketing to let people know about todays game? BBCNI had no mention of it this morning when I left home, the early morning local news had no mention of it, and with it being the first monday of the school holidays, IMHO, Cricket ireland should have been speaking to the clubs to arrange the ground to have been full of kids watching the game.
More needs to be done to market the game in the wider media, I know Alli B and others do what they can in the written word, but surely one page on BBCNI ceefax for an international is not too much to ask (then we could have easily at least doubled the attendance).
Back to these 11am proposed start times, the season before last, I was in Lurgan park at 11am, by 11:30 we had two umpires, 22 players, the sun was shining, but we couldnt start for an hour, reason why? Dew on the ground.
If need be, stat 50 over games at 11:30, 40 over games at noon, 35 overs at 12:30 and 30 over games at 1pm or 1:30. No earlier please.

interesting debate between Ivan & Simon - I too recall the late nights after games, long Firday nights at the Ballymena "6s" and the East Antrim League with Boyce, Kane & co (now its called T/20 and they think hey have invented something new!). But as I said on a"feature" elsewhere on this site, we play a game not too far removed from village cricket and yet millions have leaked from our game over the past 30-odd years to pay carpet-baggers who went under the "noms-de-plume" of "coaches" - money that left this country and yet fewer people are playing than ever. Been at a few cricket dinners last year and it was interesting to compare the atmospheres between clubs who had played "passport holders" and what I regard as "real" clubs.

Ivan...

I accept all that - but the arguement isn't about the quality of the Cricket

Has the NCU ever stopped to ask themselves if all these committee's have made things worse...?

Where have all the players gone...

Young guys had girlfriends waiting 23/30 tears ago as well you know...!

Simon, I'm not aiming to be controversial, just asking people to stop thinking with their "in our day" head on and find how to adapt to the change. Years ago when Dermott Monteith played for Middlesex it was an "event". Now lots of counties have Irish players regularily playing and starring . We have an Irishman making noises about captaining England.
We have a professional Ireland set up on and off the field. We have more kids at practice, we have development officers, we have qualified club coaches. All positive moves.
When I started playing for Muckamore in 70's a good score was 150 plus, now it's 250 and moving towards 300.
Overseas players with Irish passports , a hundred and odd day qualifying period, reasons other than cricket etc is straightforward enough.
I don't think it's the problem it's being made out to be. I think the Waringstown team apart from Pinnear are all from the local area. North Down are the same.
Maybe it's time we encouraged our young players to spend a winter in Australia or S Africa playing club cricket.
Cricket is getting more and more coverage in the media and online and the NCU have hard working committees that INVITE and ENCOURAGE feedback from clubs on how the game should be developed. Let's remain supportive, nobody get's it right all of the time.

8 team leagues
Is there any plans from the NCU to consult on the restructing of 8 team leagues prior to the agm ? I feel that alot of the Junior league restructing plans went through because club reps knew what they were voting for and where able to vote knowing the full facts.

Will the new structure be 8,8,8,8,5 or 8,8,10,11, 8,8,8 13. I just feel that it would be good for teams to know where the need to finish and what the plans are for the AGM as ultimatley teams will not vote to relegate themselves if they can avoid it.