Roncalli College will not be docked any senior one-day cricket competition points for playing captain Jacob Naylor after he made himself unavailable for representative cricket duty in Alexandra.
The South Canterbury Cricket Association Board met on Wednesday night and discussed the matter.
Naylor made himself unavailable for South Canterbury’s two-day Hawke Cup match against Otago Country, in Alexandra, on the weekend of December 18 and 19, because of work commitments on the Sunday.
The talented batsman, a part-time spinner, did not receive dispensation to miss the match, and therefore could not turn out for Roncalli in their one-day club cricket match against Timaru, on the Saturday. However, Naylor did lead the team, scoring 22 runs, in Roncalli’s 104-run loss.
South Canterbury Cricket Association president Andrew McRae said while Naylor and Roncalli were found to have breached the rules, they would not lose any competition points because Timaru won the match anyway.
“He [Naylor] did not get the correct dispensation to play, so Roncalli forfeited their opportunity to gain any points.”
The incident was the second of the season, following the Timaru club not releasing Srinivas KS for South Canterbury’s opening Hawke Cup match against North Otago in November.
Srinivas KS played a club game against Celtic instead, which Timaru won by five wickets, but were docked the six points for the victory after a similar finding by the South Canterbury Cricket Association Board.
McRae said because Roncalli lost their match there was no need for any punishment, and he did not believe there was any disparity in the two punishments this season.
“I see that as a consistent approach, and I don’t see there being a disparity between the decisions.”