GARDEN ROUTE CRICKET NEWS - After an SWD Members Council meeting last week, Nelson Mandela University (George Madibaz Cricket Club) has officially been suspended from SWD Cricket leagues for the remainder of the 2019/20 season, making their players available to other clubs.
The suspension comes after the club’s 2nd team was due to play matches against George Cricket Club C, Pirates United B, and Knysna Cavaliers B in the SWD Reserve League on 12, 13, and 20 October respectively, but failed to produce a team on each occasion.
The third time that the club failed to field a side, saw them breach clause 15 (b) of the administrative rulings of SWD Cricket, which states “If a club forfeits three matches (irrespective of the league) during the season, such club will immediately be suspended from the SWDC competitions for the duration of the season”.
While the club was recognised as suspended directly after they breached the rules, the official suspension and the exact consequences of the suspension were yet to be determined at an SWD Cricket Members Council meeting.
The meeting, which took place last week, gave member clubs an opportunity to debate the matter of the suspension.
The debate did not end in Madibaz’ favour, and now both of the club’s teams have been suspended from the SWD Cricket leagues for the rest of the season.
The suspension will mean that all clubs who were scheduled to play Madibaz will receive full points for each match, and this will have serious repercussions for Madibaz’ 1st XI who were playing in SWD’s Premier League prior to the suspension.
Madibaz’ 1st XI had played four games prior to the suspension (with two ending as a no result) and won three of these, which saw the team on stand 17 points before being suspended. Due to the fact that they will no longer be earning points for the remainder of the season, they will remain on 17 points with other clubs having the chance to overtake them on the log, which means there is a high likelihood that they will finish the season at the bottom of the log and subsequently be relegated to the Promotion League.
Over and above the possible relegation, all of Madibaz’ players are available to other clubs to sign onto their respective registers. This is only valid until 31 December however, and after that no other clubs will be able to sign Madibaz players for this season.
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