Demerara Cricket Club (DCC) cricketers Dennis Squires and Lyndon Lyght Jr., have been banned by the Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA) for bringing the sport into disrepute.
The two players were involved in a dispute in the recent New Building Society limited overs
final which resulted in the game not being completed.
According a release from the GCA, the two players met with the disciplinary committee of the GCA which subsequently banned Squires for 10 matches and Lyght Jr., for 15.
”Hearings held by the Disciplinary Committee of the GCA resulted in Mr. Dennis Squires and Mr. Lynden Lyght being sanctioned for their actions during the GCA, New Building Society 40 overs final that was held at the GCC ground on 7th October 2012,” stated the release.
“Mr. Squires was charged with (a) showing serious dissent & (b) bringing the game into disrepute (highest level). Mr. Squires was banned for 10 matches and Mr. Lyght has been banned for 15 matches.
“In effect this means that they will not be able to play any GCA matches until they have missed 10 and 15 GCA second division matches respectively,” the release added.
Squires and Lyght Jr., were involved in a run out with both batsmen caught in mid pitch while the bails were removed at the striker’s end.
The batsmen had not crossed when the stumps were broken and the umpires initially gave Squires out.
However, Lyght Jr., had already left the field and was in the pavilion.
An appeal from GCC saw the umpires requesting Lyght Jr., return to the crease which did not find favour with the DCC team which subsequently forfeited the match by refusing to continue and the umpires duly awarded GCC the match by 74 runs.
According to the MCC laws of Cricket Number 38:”The batsman (run) out …is the one whose ground is at the end where the wicket is put down “while Law 29 (c) states that…“If there is no batsman in either ground, then each ground belongs to whichever batsman is nearer to it, or, if the batsmen are level, to whichever batsman was nearer to it immediately prior to their drawing level.”
Since the batsmen were not deemed to have crossed, then this means that the batsman fairly dismissed was Squires.
At the post match ceremony Harper had promised that the GCA would take swift action, since it does not wish to promote such incidents.
In keeping with this statement the GCA has also decided to penalise the Demerara Cricket Club.
“The GCA Executive requires that the Demerara Cricket Club pay a fine of fifteen thousand dollars as well as apologise in writing to: a) the sponsor, the New Building Society and b) The Georgetown Cricket Association.”
The demands of the GCA have been set with a November 9 deadline this year.
The incident is a blemish on a largely successful year for DCC which saw the club sweeping all the major youth titles while being largely dominant in first and second division cricket.
