2007AGM

Kansai Cup Cricket Meeting Minutes - 2007/02/11

Present:

Doshisha: 4

Krac: 4

Bulldogs: 2

Fighters: 2

Tigers: 1

Kyoto: 0

1. Review of 2006 season

Reports from last year?fs committee members

- Treasury: The league doesn?ft really need much money, just for trophies, and maybe mats. Therefore there isn?ft really anything to report from the treasury. However we should investigate the current financial situation of the competition.

- Scheduling (Russell): The league started too late last year, meaning that we ran out of time due to rain. Also only the Krac and the Bulldogs provided grounds, with Kyoto and the Tigers one each. In summary we need to start earlier, get more grounds, and consider possibly introducing a rule to provide for rain stoppages.

- Umpiring (Robb): We held an umpires course last year. The goal was for 20 attendees and got 27, which was great. We also wanted more people umpiring in games. However with the scheduling issues at the end of the season it became difficult to get umpires. Also some games had to be held without neutral umpires. There was good cooperation from the teams. Teams also stuck to the rule that only umpires from the course could umpire games. There were also no official complaints about the umpiring. The level of umpiring was also good, but the number of umpires was limited. We need to work on the next level of umpires, other than the core group of half a dozen or so that consistently do the job.

- Website (Miyuru): Nothing to report. There were limited contributions from the captains regarding game reports. This needs to be improved.

2. New Committee

Deliberations/Discussions: Various questions are asked about what positions will be needed this year. (e.g.What positions do we need? Can we combine Treasurer with something? Should the main communicator to be secretary? Robb suggestion we want to have a strong chairman to lead the cricket in Kansai and lead the committee. Robb and Bhutta were both mentioned as possible chairmen. Robb wishes to make sure the competition finishes on time and that a rule allowing for rain is sorted out. Bhutta would like to get more cooperation going between Kansai and Kanto leagues. Robb would maybe like to get involved in fundraising. Miyuru said that the chairman needs to be experienced and understand the reality of cricket in Kansai. Russell believes the chairman should make sure that each team provides grounds. Also teams that can?ft provide their own grounds cant be choosy about the grounds they are given or when they are given them. Robb stated that he believed that the chairman should be responsible for communication with all of the teams. It is determined by the group that we need 5 positions: chairman/ communicator (liason), scheduler/ secretary, Umpiring/ complaints, Website/ results, treasurer/ fundraiser

Voters Russell (Krac), Matsubara (Doshisha), Sumit (Tigers), Bhutta (Fighters), Wicksy (Bulldogs).

Committee Election:

Chairman: 5-0 Robb/Bhutta

Secretary/scheduler: Russell unopposed

Treasurer/fundraiser: Bhutta unopposed

Umpiring/complaints: Miyuru unopposed.

(Robb discussed the role of the umpiring coordinator which is to improve the level of umpiring in Kansai cricket. Perhaps the Doshisha boys can also be encouraged to come along to games to umpire at square leg to gain experience. Wicksy said possible the role could also include making sure there are two neutral umpires for each game, rather than leaving it to the captains, who are busy just before the games anyway. Robb suggested that Miyuru might be a good person for this job. Robb suggested the Umpiring/ website roles could be combined.)

Website/ results: Miyuru/Sumit unopposed.

Other: The captain of Doshisha will be Takeo Matsubara.

3. Ideas/ proposals for 2007

At this point Robb took over the running of the meeting.

Initial Discussion:

Krac wishes to propose a rain rule. Should rain affected matches be replayed? Do we introduce a system such as the D/L system? Last years season also started very late. Krac wishes to play more games in April/ May. Krac would also like to host the 6-a-side tournament on the same day as the awards night for the Kansai cup. Krac is interested in sending a team to Hong Kong for the sixes tournament there. Krac would like to send a combined Kansai team to play against Kanto as was planned last year.

Jason from the Bulldogs is very keen for the Doshisha boys to enter a team, and also that any restrictions regarding good players be waved for the Doshisha team.

Mick Raikes expressed a concerned about teams borrowing good players and then batting them high in the order before players from the original team.

Bulldogs wish to discuss the rain rule, and also how many games each team is playing.

Mick Raikes mentioned that maybe a review of the points system is necessary.

Final Points for Discussion:

- Season Format

Russell says that given we have 6 teams it is impossible to play more than one game against each other team. Then the top team would automatically go into the final, and 2 and 3 would play off for the second final spot. That would be 15 games. Robb mentioned the possibility of 2 pools, plus semi finals and finals. This would be a maximum of 6 games each team. General agreement is that everyone wants to play each other team. What finals system do we want?

Vote on two options: First option is top team automatically qualifies for final. 2 and 3 play off for the 2nd position in the final. Second option is top four system where 1 plays 4 and 2 plays 3 with the winners of the semi-finals playing in the final.

Vote result 2-3. Second option selected.

- Schedule

When do we want to finish the season? There is general agreement that we want to finish the season by early October. Robb says that we want to get as many games as possible done by rainy season. Russell wishes to have all of the round-robin games done by the end of August.

- Grounds

Bulldogs already have 4 grounds before the lottery. Miyuru hopes that the team will end up with 10 plus games. Doshisha can only reserve grounds one month in advance. However given warning they should be able to get ground time on Sundays. They will try to book a ground for one Sunday a month.

Fighters are also confident that they can get grounds this year, particularly in April/May.

Sumit is unsure about the ground situation for the Tigers.

Kyoto: unsure.

Krac has asked the Krac club for about 8 games, 5 Sundays and 3 Saturdays.

Tigers, Krac and Fighters can play Saturdays, and Doshisha can play Saturdays from May.

Robb notes that all games should be scheduled one month in advance. Therefore March games need to be decided asap. Russell says to please contact him as soon as possible when teams get grounds.

March 25th is set as the deadline for giving all ground information to Russell.

Robb McKenna. Note: I think this date should be earlier than March 25. If games are scheduled for March, we need that information by the end of Feb. All other ground information should be provided as available.

- Rain Rule

There is agreement that we want to replay games that are completely washed out. We will try to keep August free to replay washed out games. Doshisha will have some commitments in August.

What do we do for games that are rain interrupted after they have been started? We agree that we do not have enough information yet so lets establish a sub-committee to organize a rule, then the main committee can review it, and all the teams can vote on it.

Mick, Wicksy, David Gleeson and Jerry form a sub-committee to create a proposal by the end of February, with a decision to be made by the first week of March. If nothing is agreed upon, then the current system will continue.

- Points

Mick discussed problems he felt existed with current system.

The sub-committee is assigned the job to review all of the rules, including the bonus point system.

- Overs

Discussion about how many overs we want? 35 or 40 overs. It is sometimes difficult to get to Miki to start games early. Russell believes that it is possible to get to Miki by 10 if necessary. Miyuru said that the grounds it gets are sometimes from 9 to 4. So everyone would need to be there by 9, to start at 9:30. Otherwise it is not possible and we must just keep the 35 over games.

Sub-committee will make a proposal on this also within the same timeframe. At this stage it will stay 35 overs.

- Restricted players

Robb/ Russell explained the current restricted player system to the Doshisha team. The idea of keeping the same rule is discussed, with an exception being made for Doshisha who can borrow for anyone. Maybe each team can nominate four players who can play for other teams, rather than nominate players who can?ft. Last year?fs rules are reviewed.

Robb proposes that each team submit their list of players that other teams can borrow, to be posted on the website. And then Doshisha can borrow any player. This list should be submitted by the end of February.

- 6-a-side/ awards ceremony.

There is general agreement that this is a good idea.

- Kansai v Kanto (Kyushu, Matsuyama)

The same selectors will choose a team to represent Kansai. (Russell, Miyuru and Jerry) Robb would like to prioritize the Kanto game over the other areas, then Kyushu and then Matsuyama. Also our competition must take priority over any representative games.

- Hong Kong Sixes

There is general agreement that this is a good idea and is worth pursuing. Robb accepts the job as the contact for organizing teams for this event.

- Twenty/20

There is general agreement that this is a good idea.

It is suggested to have a committee meeting at some stage during the meeting. It may be ideal to have one during June, to assess the status of the scheduling etc. Robb says it would be good to have the meeting on a Sunday.