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ECB Release on Conduct in Junior Cricket

Neil Pickup

Cricket Web Moderator
Hot off the press today - here, and an interesting read: the following extract in particular (with my comments in red).

• Appealing when the batsman is clearly not out.
• All this does is result in umpires not giving you borderline decisions when it comes to it. It's not sharp practice, or advantageous, it's just really bloody silly and no manager or coach with more than three brain cells will encourage it.
• Shouts of 'come on, let's make some noise'.
• Could someone please explain to me how this is unsporting?
• Coaching from the boundary, including making regular changes of fielders’ positions.
• A permanent cloud that will always hang over youth cricket when the borderline between development and victory becomes blurred. Personally I don't see how this is desperately different to England players wandering off for a toilet break between overs to talk with Andy Flower. How criminal is it to support inexperienced players in pressure situations?
• Adults, presumably parents, coming onto the field of play to ‘get their message’ across.
• Now we find the indefensible where the line between competition and living vicariously through children, and I can't see how this can be tolerated by management or then by officials, who must take some blame here for permitting it on their pitch.
• Swearing at opponents.
• Not even going to try to defend it.
• Seeking to distract opponents verbally or by harassment with persistent clapping or unnecessary noise under the guise of enthusiasm.
• This is one area where I'm always going to come into argument with others. As far as I am concerned, any noise, so long as it is not during the bowler's run up, and is not personal/abusive, is part of the game. The whole sport is based heavily on psychological strength and weakness, regardless: words are just a small part of it.

A case in point in one school match this season occurred when one of the opposition's opening bats hit the ball virtually to the midwicket boundary, yet no run was taken. One of our fielders, aware that this was clearly because the non-striker did not fancy facing the quick bowler currently operating, said "doesn't look like they're running today, boys". I did not, and still do not, see anything wrong with it, yet the other side's umpire took great exception to it. Intriguingly, this only provoked his own team to collapse in a huge heap...

Where is the line?
 

slowfinger

International Debutant
Hot off the press today - here, and an interesting read: the following extract in particular (with my comments in red).

Appealing when the batsman is clearly not out.
• All this does is result in umpires not giving you borderline decisions when it comes to it. It's not sharp practice, or advantageous, it's just really bloody silly and no manager or coach with more than three brain cells will encourage it.

• Shouts of 'come on, let's make some noise'.
• Could someone please explain to me how this is unsporting?
• Coaching from the boundary, including making regular changes of fielders’ positions.
• A permanent cloud that will always hang over youth cricket when the borderline between development and victory becomes blurred. Personally I don't see how this is desperately different to England players wandering off for a toilet break between overs to talk with Andy Flower. How criminal is it to support inexperienced players in pressure situations?
• Adults, presumably parents, coming onto the field of play to ‘get their message’ across.
• Now we find the indefensible where the line between competition and living vicariously through children, and I can't see how this can be tolerated by management or then by officials, who must take some blame here for permitting it on their pitch.
• Swearing at opponents.
• Not even going to try to defend it.
• Seeking to distract opponents verbally or by harassment with persistent clapping or unnecessary noise under the guise of enthusiasm.
• This is one area where I'm always going to come into argument with others. As far as I am concerned, any noise, so long as it is not during the bowler's run up, and is not personal/abusive, is part of the game. The whole sport is based heavily on psychological strength and weakness, regardless: words are just a small part of it.

A case in point in one school match this season occurred when one of the opposition's opening bats hit the ball virtually to the midwicket boundary, yet no run was taken. One of our fielders, aware that this was clearly because the non-striker did not fancy facing the quick bowler currently operating, said "doesn't look like they're running today, boys". I did not, and still do not, see anything wrong with it, yet the other side's umpire took great exception to it. Intriguingly, this only provoked his own team to collapse in a huge heap...

Where is the line?
What do you consider an outrageously stupid appeal?
 

Neil Pickup

Cricket Web Moderator
What do you consider an outrageously stupid appeal?
Midwicket going up for LBW when it's pitched two foot outside leg stump... Usually this goes down to youthful overexuberance, but my U11s at school know what's out and what isn't. As I keeper myself I appeal on leg-before if I think the ball's gonna go somewhere near the stumps, and if there's any noise on something that's gone behind.

I think we all know what's meant by this part of the release.
 

slowfinger

International Debutant
Midwicket going up for LBW when it's pitched two foot outside leg stump... Usually this goes down to youthful overexuberance, but my U11s at school know what's out and what isn't. As I keeper myself I appeal on leg-before if I think the ball's gonna go somewhere near the stumps, and if there's any noise on something that's gone behind.

I think we all know what's meant by this part of the release.
Yeah but normally little kids don't go up example when there is a little tickle on the glove, wicket keeper catches it and only person who appeals is the bowler. But for LBW appeals I can see why they are exuberant but yeah I have seen numerous occasions of midwicket going up for silly things- it's just the way it is with them- sometimes even the fielders come up and say "No..... don't appeal you're at mid-wicket!" 'Tis just part of their game.
 

fredfertang

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
As neither of my sons take the slightest bit of interest in cricket I've taken to occasionally going along to see my nephew play at under 15 level - a couple of weeks ago my brother couldn't take him to his game so I did instead - unfortunately my protests that I was uncle and not father fell on deaf ears when the coach was drawing up an umpiring roster and I had to take a turn - the lads behaviour was generally fine but there was some frivolous appealing on the field not helped by some ridiculous shouts from the gallery - I got so fed up with it that in the end I took it on myself to explain why I was turning all the lbw shouts down - now these lads, so it seemed to my untrained eye, were actually pretty decent cricketers and certainly had been coached, but I found out in the course of the evening that most of them simply didn't know the lbw law - I hope they put their parents right
 

four_or_six

Cricketer Of The Year
You're not allowed to shout 'come on, let's make some noise'? That seems ridiculous, it's supposed to be a fun sport, not sitting in a library.
 

Neil Pickup

Cricket Web Moderator
Yeah but normally little kids don't go up example when there is a little tickle on the glove, wicket keeper catches it and only person who appeals is the bowler. But for LBW appeals I can see why they are exuberant but yeah I have seen numerous occasions of midwicket going up for silly things- it's just the way it is with them- sometimes even the fielders come up and say "No..... don't appeal you're at mid-wicket!" 'Tis just part of their game.
Yeah. I don't think I've quite made myself clear here: there's no issue with little kids getting overexcited and just getting it wrong through sheer enthusiasm. Nor are we wanting to dissuade boys from having the confidence to make a decent appeal if they think they've got a batsman: again this is something that my school side got very good at, the highlight being the whole lot going up together when Papplewick's #11 gloved to slip with three overs left to play and the draw looking well and truly on the cards.

The problem is people who really should know better, e,g. Monty Panesar, who has just reminded me that he still has no concept of the LBW law, having just hit Moeen Ali on the pads a good 6-8 inches outside off stump.
 

cric

Cricket Spectator
lol some of these are actually really funny, I wonder who came up with some of these.
 

slowfinger

International Debutant
Yeah. I don't think I've quite made myself clear here: there's no issue with little kids getting overexcited and just getting it wrong through sheer enthusiasm. Nor are we wanting to dissuade boys from having the confidence to make a decent appeal if they think they've got a batsman: again this is something that my school side got very good at, the highlight being the whole lot going up together when Papplewick's #11 gloved to slip with three overs left to play and the draw looking well and truly on the cards.

The problem is people who really should know better, e,g. Monty Panesar, who has just reminded me that he still has no concept of the LBW law, having just hit Moeen Ali on the pads a good 6-8 inches outside off stump.
Yeah I get what you mean now, like just pissing off the umpire for the hell of doing it?
 

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