The purpose of this policy statement is to confirm to all members the criteria used and the thought process involved in selecting teams.
As the Club grows with the introduction of new members and juniors and furthermore the commitment of existing members to make themselves available, it is necessary to ensure that we not only field competitive sides but also that all playing members are afforded a reasonable opportunity to meet their own expectations. This is important to ensure that we continue to attract worthy opposition, especially for our friendly matches on a Sunday, and that we continue to expand the membership with the ultimate aim of fielding additional sides.
The driving force for selection will always be, in the first instance, the continuing use of the availability chart. This is distributed to all members, either by email or post, and it is therefore important that members wishing to make themselves available should do so by completing the chart and returning it to me.
If you do not make yourself available then you will not be considered for selection.
It is also considered appropriate that fully paid-up members should be selected before those that have not yet paid their subscriptions. Indeed no one will be considered, with the exception of new players, for selection if they have not paid their subscriptions after 1st June of each year. This is partly to do with fairness but also because our club insurance will not cover those players who are injured during a match and who are not fully paid-up.
Currently we run two sides, one of which takes part in the West Sussex League Div 1 on a Saturday and the other in friendly matches on a Sunday. It is important therefore that we clearly differentiate between the two teams both in terms of the competitive nature of the fixtures and also because members have a preference towards the type of cricket they wish to play.
Accordingly, the selection criteria differs between the two teams as follows:
Saturday Team – in order to remain competitive in the league and challenge for honours, it is necessary to field the strongest team available. The Team Secretary and Saturday Captain will discuss availability and current form before selecting a side and in all cases the team selected will be that deemed to be the best available at the time.
It is likely therefore, that some members will find themselves not selected to play on a Saturday due to the numbers who have made themselves available. I would urge anyone not selected to also make themselves available to play on Sunday if possible.
Sunday Team – due to the friendly nature of Sunday fixtures it is important for the survival and continued growth of the Club to ensure that every playing member is given the opportunity to play cricket within their reasonable expectations. It is also EQUALLY important to ensure that we play to a competitive standard in order to ensure that we continue to attract worthy opposition and maintain good team morale.
Therefore the selection criteria for Sundays, is to be based on meeting the availability and membership standards as indicated above, and a) balancing the need to allow players the opportunity to play whilst; b) maintaining a competitive cricketing standard.
To achieve these objectives will on many occasions involve rotating our players so as to ensure fair playing opportunity. Wherever possible we shall try our best to manage the side so that no one individual misses more than one Sunday in a row. Additionally some players may not be rotated in order that we can achieve our other objective of maintaining a competitive cricketing standard.
The Team Secretary and Captains will monitor this closely to ensure reasonable fairness throughout. As the Club grows it will become increasingly difficult to maintain this rotation system, therefore the ultimate aim is to field more than one side whereby it should be possible to ensure that everyone gets a game when available.
I thank you all for your continued support and patience and hopefully this statement of our selection policy will help us all enjoy a successful summer of cricket.
Neil Miller
Team Secretary