IndiaPost.com - NJ cricket league passes stricter rules for players

NEW JERSEY: The Cricket League of New Jersey, the largest body of cricket enthusiasts in the state, held its annual meeting here on April 6 to induct its new seven member teams and to finalize new cricket principles in its rule book.

"We concluded our second part of annual meet …We added a few new rules, deferred or rejected a few other proposals that were tabled by the Executive Committee and member teams with a view to improve the fair standards of the game," said Anoop Desai, president of the CLNJ, in a press release. CLNJ, established eight years back with 16 member teams, has been providing opportunity for cricket lovers to play or watch competitive league cricket in New Jersey.

Since 2000, CLNJ has emerged as the largest of the four leagues in New Jersey with 48 member teams and over 1,250 active players. The entire state boasts of over 100 active cricket teams. CLNJ is recognized as a not-for-profit organization that is efficiently managed in a democratic manner.

Such was the active participation in the annual general meet, sponsored by Zee Sports America which is only on DISH Network and Dreamcricket.com, that member teams rejected some of the proposals including one from the executive committee.

Atul Huckoo, vice president of media and marketing at the League, sought more active cooperation in soliciting the support of mainstream companies in the promotion of the game in New Jersey. Zee Sports America and DISH Network are among the earliest such companies who have come forward to help spread the love of the game in the garden state.

The two companies sponsored a raffle contest and distributed prizes related to cricket to the winning members. ZEE Sports America provides coverage of South Asian sports such as Indian football, cricket, golf, and motor sports including ZEE's award-winning original productions such as the Daily Sports News, Sports Café, Football Café, Sports Sunday, World Motor Sports Magazine, Twenty Two Yards, Cricket Talk, and Cricket First. Every year, CLNJ teams play three warm-ups, 15 season and the playoff's games.

The season starts in April and ends in late September. "The complexity of managing the league matches in terms of providing a conflict-free schedule, high quality umpires and other cricket facilities has increased along with the number of member teams," said Desai.

CLNJ is affiliated with the United States of America Cricket Association to "offer opportunity to players and teams to shine at the local level and then move on to represent their state, region and country," he added.

The CLNJ meet was kicked off with the introduction of seven new teams in the League. After much discussion and debate, the meet simplified the rain rule by agreeing to adopt the run-rate rule and added a new provision to resolve disputes and appeals in order to minimize individual bias in cases of dispute resolution.

Finally, the League members increased the penalty on individual players accused of impersonation and fraud. The League agreed to impose a three-year ban on any player found guilty of playing for a team that he is not registered to play for.

The amendment for the rule will be included in the CLNJ Laws and will be distributed to the member teams for review. However, the members couldn't come to consensus on penalizing the team found guilty of allowing unregistered players in their game. The League members agreed to table the issue and deferred it to a later date.

"It is difficult for the team leadership to determine if any of its players is registered to play elsewhere," said a member, opposing the move. Earlier in the year, the general body of the League comprising of three dozen cricket teams from all over the Garden State had assembled in the Royal Albert's Palace here and elected its nine executive committee members.

The elected members of the CLNJ are as follows: Anoop Desai (President); Pragnesh Patel (Vice President:); Asif Bari (Treasurer); Kunal Chandawalla (Secretary); Asghar Kazim (VP Disputes); Atul Huckoo (VP Media & Marketing); Kapil Joshi (VP Scheduling) and Dimpal Patel and Johnson George (Umpiring Coordinators).