Clubs' bulletin no 4 of 2025 - 2 April
ECB regulations and guidelines 2025 – for information
Concussion. Umpires have been instructed to apply the Managing the Risk of Concussion in Recreational Cricket guidance. This means that:
any head impact during play, however minimal, including collisions with the ground or another player, will result in an immediate call of dead ball, and no runs or dismissal after the impact will count.
at the toss, each club should nominate a responsible person who must be 18 years old or over, who will be asked by the umpires to check whether a player is fit to continue after a head impact. If no other person is nominated, this role will fall to the captain, or if the captain suffers a head impact, the vice-captain. If there is any doubt about the fitness of a player to continue, the player’s welfare is paramount, and they should leave the field for medical attention. In all cases, if the umpires are not satisfied that a player is fit to continue, they may insist that he leaves the field.
The ECB concussion training module can be accessed at https://concussionlearning.ecb.co.uk/#/, and the ECB Safety Guidelines also contain links to life support courses provided by the British Heart Foundation and UK Coaching.
First aid. ECB Safety Guidelines recommend that each club appoints at least one first-aider, and that a first-aider is present when any cricket-related activity takes place.
Medical Emergency Action Plans. ECB Safety Guidelines recommend that each club has a medical emergency action plan and risk assessment, and leagues should ensure that medical emergency action plans are in place at clubs used for League finals or representative games. The guidelines contain a medical action plan template.
Parental permission for junior players to play on open-age cricket. ECB Safety Regulations now require that junior players should have written permission to play in open-age cricket. A sample form has been produced by ECB for use, but it is entirely up to clubs as to how they want to manage this in a way that is as convenient as possible to them, for example, as part of registration processes. The signature of captains on match cards will include confirmation that any juniors are playing with parental consent. Neither the League nor the umpires are required to check that consent has been received, this is entirely the responsibility of clubs.
Restrictions for junior players. ECB Safety Regulations now refer to the actual age of the player rather than the age groups of players. The ages of junior players must now be entered on team cards. These will now be used to determine fast bowling and fielding restrictions, the bowling restrictions in accordance with the following table:
Age in years Max overs per spell Max overs per day
12 & 13 5 10
14 & 15 5 12
16 & 17 6 15
18 & 19 7 18
League fees - action required
Annual Subscription invoices were sent to clubs yesterday on Play-Cricket with a due payment date of 30th April 2025.
Live-Streaming – action required
If your club intends to live-stream home games for the first time in 2025, please advise Roger Pugh as soon as possible, so that you can be added to the list on the home page of our website.
Play-Cricket actions – for information
Last season the Senior Section committee made the decision that it had to start enforcing Administrative Rule 29.ii to ensure the timely completion of Captain Reports, this saw a number of clubs docked points for non-compliance, but ultimately had the desired effect of the majority of reports completed on time.
The decision was taken at the end of last season that from the 2025 season we would also enforce this same rule for non-completion of Play-Cricket actions, more specifically completion of scorecards as per Competition Rule 21.
This means that any non-completed scorecard actions in you Play-Cricket action centre after 48 hours of the start of the game will result in the following being applied under rule 29.ii:
• 1st Warning – to be sent via email after the 48 hours deadline has passed.
• 2nd Warning – to be sent via email after the 48 hours deadline has passed, with a reminder the next breach could result in points lost.
• 3rd Breach and every subsequent breach – an email will be sent after the 48 hours deadline notifying that the relevant section committee will decide at their next meeting if a points deduction shall be applied.
Points to note:
This is a change from the procedure last year where the league’s Play-Cricket admin would send reminders to clubs, this was a massive undertaking throughout the season for one volunteer, this year no reminders will be sent out after April.
Reminder emails will be sent out during the first two weeks in April to help new administrators and provide a refresher for everyone for the coming season. The email will be brief and will state that the result and scorecards do not match the minimum standard required.
Umpires and scorers must be input. If there is no umpire, select "No League Umpires" from dropdown, and no scorer, select "No Scorer" from dropdown. Please note that No 1 Scorer is always the Home Team Scorer and No 2 Scorer is always the Away Team Scorer.
Remember, any actions taken on Play-Cricket after the initial submission of the result and scorecard are date-stamped, and the administrator who made the changes will be identified. Any modifications must be legitimate and not to falsify any record.
Pre-Season Meeting – action required
The pre-season meeting for all clubs will be held at Shaw Lane Sports Club, Barnsley S70 6HZ on Wednesday 9 April, with a 7.00pm start – please see the agenda here. Balls, handbooks, etc, will be available for collection from 6pm. Clubs are reminded that attendance is compulsory. The agenda will be issued this week.
Safeguarding courses - for information
The e-Learning Safeguarding Level 2 course is now officially live. It can be accessed using this link - https://booking.ecb.co.uk/5MVWQK
For information, below is a summary of safeguarding courses required to be completed by club officials:
