The Cumbria Cricket League is to be the subject of a complete review of the rules before the 2022 season.
All the clubs have agreed to have the rules completely rewritten or amended so that they cover every aspect of play from the Premier down to Division Two.
League secretary Peter Gardiner said: “It will cover all the cup competitions as well, including the T20 so that there is uniformity and everyone is clear what the rules are for each competition.
“Once this has been done it will be sent out to the clubs for them to vote on the changes as they would have done normally at an AGM.”
At this week’s committee meeting members discussed the rule concerning the time to bowl 50 overs in the Premier League.
It had been brought up by the Lindal club, relegated by a point from the Premier Division who suggested rivals Whitehaven had taken three- and-a-half hours to bowl their 50 overs at Haverigg in their final game which they went on to win.
When umpires report such incidents, clubs can be docked a point and that was the margin by which Lindal went down.
But the match umpires chose not to report the incident and, in any case, it wasn’t in Whitehaven’s interests to bowl slowly as they were to bat last in fading light.
The League secretary added: ”During the meeting, the time to bowl 50 overs in the Premier League was discussed by the committee and it was decided that given the facts that legside wides as well as offside ones were introduced this season they are going to recommend a 10 or 15 minute extension when the rules are put to the clubs at an egm in January.”
The current rule states: “The rate of overs bowled shall not fall below the minimum of Seventeen overs per hour on average throughout the innings .
“If in the opinion of the standing umpires, there are no extenuating circumstances ,the offending club will have (1) point deducted for the failure to achieve 17 overs per hour on the first occurrence in any season.”
One umpire said: ”Usually the opening bowlers are a bit tardy and manage 14 or 15 in the first hour but when the spinners come on they usually catch up quite a bit.
“As umpires we usually allow a bit of leeway for various reasons (sanitisation, drinks break , injuries , moving side screens for left hand right hand, people and cars moving behind the bowlers arm etc).”
