This just isn’t cricket – Crompton

Cricket:
Skipper hits out at CLL over cup-tie player error
CROMPTON feel they should be playing in Sunday’s John Willie Lees Wood Cup quarter-finals despite losing to Unsworth in the first round.

Skipper Carl Taylor insists Unsworth should have forfeited the first-round tie at Glebe Street on May 20 after fielding an unregistered player - wicketkeeper Steven Judge.

Instead league officials fined Unsworth £50 — and imposed identical fines over the player’s two ineligible league appearances at Radcliffe and Walsden in May.

Judge has since been registered as an Unsworth player. He has played for the club for several seasons and the failure to register was described as an oversight.

Taylor accepts the mistake but remains aggrieved. He said: “There are disgruntled people and fans at Crompton. I accept they beat us fair and square on the day, but had I put out a side which had an ineligible player in it I would have held up my hands and accepted that we should forfeit the game. We have talked to a lot of cricket people about this and none of them can understand why Unsworth have not forfeited the game. This leaves the Wood Cup open to abuse.”

He added: “Oldham had points deducted a couple of years ago for not registering a player, which was also an oversight, so it seems like one rule for one and another rule for another.”

CLL secretary Alan Wright said the rules did not allow officials to eject a team from the cup for fielding an unregistered player.




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