NCCA General Competition Rules

NCCA General Competition Rules

1. There shall be three competitions: T20, One Day Trophy and Championship.

2. MANAGEMENT 

2.1 Control of the competitions shall be undertaken by National Counties Cricket Association Ltd acting by its board of directors (NCCA) and all decisions relating to these rules or to matches played in the competition shall be final and binding on all concerned. 

2.2 NCCA retains ultimate discretion over the Regulations for NCCA Competitions and Playing Conditions and shall be entitled at any time to amend, vary, or add to them on reasonable notice to interested parties as well as in exceptional or urgent circumstances when they shall be entitled to do so immediately upon notification to the interested parties. In the event that any such decision is made on the day of or during a match in relation to which a referee has been appointed the decision shall be notified to the referee who shall give the notification to the interested parties. 

2.3 In the case of exceptional or urgent circumstances as referred to in 2.2 the powers of NCCA may be exercised on its behalf by the Operations Director, or if he is not available or is conflicted, by the Chairman or by a Director nominated by the Chairman. 

3. QUALIFICATION OF PLAYERS 

3.1. The ECB Regulations governing the Qualification and Registration of cricketers in First Class County Cricket shall apply to all competitions. 

3.2. No player ‘not qualified for England’ shall be eligible to participate in the competitions. 

3.3. Each county shall be restricted to playing in any one match not more than one current or former first class player who has played a total of 40 or more games consisting of any of the following: First Class County Championship matches, List A Games, Test matches home and abroad, representative matches home and abroad recognized as First Class matches, and First Class matches abroad . (For clarity: matches involving University teams do not count toward the total, regardless of which side the player was representing.) 

3.4. A player shall only be eligible to play for one county in NCCA competitions in any one season whether in the same or different competitions. 

3.5. No player who during the current season is or has been registered for a First Class County shall be eligible to participate: 

(i) in the third or fourth Championship match or the Championship Final unless he was registered for the National County at least 14 clear days prior to the date scheduled for the first day of that county’s third Championship match; 

(ii) in the Quarter Final, Semi Final or Final of the One Day Trophy unless he was registered for that County at least 14 clear days prior to the date scheduled for that county’s third Group Stage match in the relevant Competition. 

3.6. The overriding discretion of NCCA shall also apply to these exceptions. 

4. PARTICIPATION 

Players must participate throughout any match for which they are selected unless prevented from doing so by a genuine and unforeseen emergency. Specifically, no player may play in another match during a Championship, One Day Trophy or T20 match, if this prevents him from participating fully in that match. 

5 PENALTIES FOR BREACHES OF RULES 3 AND 4 

The following penalties shall apply to any county which is found to have contravened Rule 3 or Rule 4: 

5.1. Championship – forfeiture of all points gained in the match. 

5.2. T20 or One Day Trophy – the county shall be deemed to have lost that match and their opponents shall be deemed to have won it unless they too are in contravention of this rule. Such matches shall be ignored when calculating net run rate unless the original result was a win by a side not in contravention of this rule. 

6. MATCH OFFICIALS 

6.1. The arrangements for the selection and appointment of umpires shall be in the hands of ECB. 

6.2. NCCA may, in its absolute discretion, appoint a match referee for any match in any competition, as it considers appropriate. Match referees will act as instructed by the Board. 

6.3. Each County shall provide a scorer for each match. 

6.4. For T20 and One Day Trophy matches, all Counties will use Duckworth/Lewis/Stern integrated with PCS Pro Scorer. A printer will be made available by the home counties in order to produce the Par Score for Target sheets. 

6.5. NCCA shall be responsible for making a printer available for the Finals. 

7. ADMINISTRATION 

7.1 At the end of each match both scorers shall complete and agree an on-line official result sheet which the home county shall upload to the relevant County online folder within 24 hours. 

7.2 After each match, each captain shall submit an assessment report on the on-line form provided 

7.3 After each match, the umpires shall submit a joint match report on the on-line form provided. 

7.4 Reports must be received by the Operations Director within 3 days of the conclusion of the match; counties who do not meet this requirement shall be subject to a financial penalty as decided from time to time by NCCA. 

8 VENUE BECOMING UNFIT 

In the event of it becoming apparent before a match commences that no play will be possible because the ground and/or pitch are unfit, an alternative venue shall be permissible, subject to the agreement of both counties. 

9 ECB DIRECTIVES 

The ECB directives relating to fast bowling and the wearing of protective equipment by young players shall apply in all matches. 

10 LAW 21.2 – FAIR DELIVERY – THE ARM 

The principles set out in the ‘Procedure to address a suspect bowling action in NCCA Competitions’ shall apply to all matches. This procedure, to be followed by umpires and the competition organizers, is appended to this document. 

11 GROUND ADMISSION 

The home county shall be responsible for the match arrangements and shall retain any gate receipts. The home county or the club whose ground is being used for any match may at its discretion charge for admission and/or parking, but members of NCCA and participating counties shall be admitted free of charge upon production of evidence of membership. 

12 CODE OF CONDUCT AND DISCIPLINARY PROCEDURES 

The NCCA Code of Conduct and Disciplinary Procedure shall apply to all matches.