One of the toughest tasks we have is selecting four teams for Saturday cricket. We aim to provide our members cricket at a level appropriate for them, while maintaining fairness and balance in our selection, thinking of the club ahead of individual teams.
To that end, in 2025 we changed how availability is communicated, so give our captains the best chance of picking teams in a fair way that doesn’t involve too much of their time. To that end:
Availability tracking is done using two WhatsApp groups, so members must be a member of these.
- During the league season, captains start making selection decisions on the Sunday before the Saturday game.
- Players should make themselves available in time, and update us about any changes to availability. Selection will be based on known availability, without captains chasing players. If your availability is not declared, this may affect your selection.
- When a player makes known their availability, it is to play for the Club, not for a team. Where necessary and possible, captains will take player circumstances /preferences into account when making selections.
- Selection decisions to be made based on, but not exclusively:
- Availability notification,
- Club membership,
- Debts and unpaid fees,
- Commitment to play for the club.
- Selections are made top down. The the 1s pick their XI, then the 2s and so on…
- If a player not needed by team 1 who they played for last week they should be given a game in Team 2 where possible rather than Team 3, as this affects their ability to play for Team 1 in future weeks, if the team 1 captain has made it clear they will likely play for Team 1 again.
- People who are available but do not get Saturday cricket, will be given first priority for Sunday / midweek cricket the following week if they are available.