Following a marked increase in the number of transfers for which Management Committee approval has been sought over the past two to three seasons, the Management Committee at its meeting on July 15^th 2009 agreed to ask the Rules Committee to undertake a formal review of Association Rule 13.

The outcome of this review is in no way pre-determined; but will hopefully result in proposals being put to the Association AGM in December, which will allow clubs to express a view as to whether the existing Rule needs amendment or clarification.

Among issues (by no means exhaustive) which it has been suggested the review might cover are:

1) The preamble to the existing Rule sets down as a principle that the normal expectation is that once a player has appeared for a club, s/he should be expected to be available to that club for the duration of that year’s league campaign.  Is this still a shared perception?

2) Rules 13 a (dealing with trails) and 13 c (dealing with transfers) are of different vintages, operate for different parts of the season, and have different involvement of the Management Committee.  Do they need to be harmonised?

3) With the introduction of percentages should the time limit for transfers (and trials?) be expressed on a fixed date basis, rather than number of games?

4) Now that a procedure for transfers exists, should Rule 13 a be tightened to reflect its original purpose, eg:

 -  no more than one triallist to be allowed per team per game?

 -  trial games not to be permitted for a club for which the player concerned has played in the previous three seasons?

 -  a limitation on the number of trial games permitted per individual over a prescribed period?

 5) Should 2^nd XI players be permitted to play on trial for a club in a higher grade, even though their first XI [for which they are eligible] is in that or a higher league, provided that they have appeared at 2^nd XI level only; or should they have to apply for transfer in order to gain access to cricket at a higher level?

 6) Should transfers be restricted to changed domestic or employment circumstances, or irreconcilable breakdown of relationships between a player and a club [and, if the latter, who judges]?  Or should players simply be permitted to leave a club because they so wish?

 7) Would there be merit in restricting the number of players any one club can acquire on transfer to, say, two per season – both in the interests of not de-stabilising the clubs they leave; and in the interests of current players for the clubs they join, who may otherwise themselves be forced to seek a move or go without a game?

 8) Should different rules apply to junior players [under 18 on April 20^th of relevant season]?

None of this refers of course to the recruitment of free agents, or during the close season.

DM Jones

Association Secretary