Varistha Cheltenham Premier T20 Rules

1. The fixtures are scheduled for Tuesday evenings. By mutual agreement teams may swap grounds or move the fixture to another evening in the same week. The competition organisers, appointed umpires and scorers must be informed of changes by the original home team. The format of the competition will be a round robin league followed by playoffs and a final. The team finishing top of the round robin will play at home to the team finishing 2nd in Qualifier 1, whilst the team finishing 3rd will host the team finishing 4th in an Eliminator. The loser of Qualifier 1 will play the winner of the Eliminator in Qualifier 2 at Cheltenham Cricket Club. Round Robin positions will be determined by net run rate if the points are level. The final will be played at Cheltenham Cricket Club.

2. A player may not play for more than one club in the competition in the year. Clubs must nominate a squad of 18 players and up to 4 Under 19 reserve players to be used in the tournament before matches begin. Overseas players, as defined by the ECB, can be nominated for team squads. Only one overseas player will be allowed per team per match.

3. Umpires and a scorer will be appointed when possible by GACO. In the absence of the official umpires, the captains will appoint umpires. The home team will be responsible for providing a scorer if GACO are unable to appoint one. If the home team scorer is unavailable the away team should be asked to provide a scorer. And if both scorers are unavailable then the home team must approach the organisers to appoint a scorer. The appointed scorer will be responsible for posting the scorecard on Play-Cricket.com on the night of the match. Appointed umpires must be paid £35 each and the scorer £20. In the case of a single appointed umpire he will be paid £70 and he will stand at the bowler’s end for the whole game.  

4. Pink balls will be used in the competition. The competition organisers will supply each team with a stock of pink match balls. A new pink ball will be used in each innings, each team providing one ball. Matches will be played in coloured clothing of the club’s choice. Each club will provide the competition organisers with a team name which will be used in fixtures and tables.

5. The normal Laws of Cricket will apply except where stated below.

6. Teams can nominate 12 players for each match, one of whom can be introduced as an Impact Player at any point in the match. Impact player must be nominated after the toss and before play commences. Impact Player will directly replace one of the starting eleven who will take no further part in the match unless he comes on as a substitute fielder in accordance with the Laws of Cricket. Selected teams for each match must be published by midnight on the night preceding the match.

7. The game will start at or before 6.00pm unless delayed by weather or other common sense reason. The toss will be at 5.45pm prompt. Each innings is limited to 20 overs. If the start of the match is delayed after 6.15pm, the duration of the match will be reduced by one over per side for every six minutes (or part thereof) lost, down to a minimum of 10 overs per side. If light or weather mean that the match is abandoned after the team batting second have completed 10 overs, the standard version of Duckworth Lewis Stern method will be used to determine the winner. If the second team does not complete 10 overs, the result is an abandoned game, except in the Final, see below .

8. All sides are expected to be in position to bowl the first ball of the last of their 20 overs within 1 hour 15 minutes playing time. In the event of them failing to do so, the full quota of overs will be completed, one fewer fielder shall be permitted outside the fielding restriction area than would normally be the case in the over(s) in progress at the time. All penalties in this regard will be imposed immediately the ball first becomes dead after the scheduled or re-scheduled cessation time for the innings. In reduced/interrupted matches innings will be calculated at 3.75 mins per over x total overs example 10 overs = 37.5 mins - ready to bowl 1st ball of 10th over in 37.5 mins. The Umpire shall inform the fielding team Captain when taking the field of timings and have discretion to amend the finishing time if unavoidable delays occur during the innings.

9. At all times a minimum of FOUR fielders, in addition to the bowler and the wicket-keeper, must be inside a 30 yard “circle” at the moment the bowler delivers the ball. For the first SIX overs of each innings, only TWO fielders at most may be outside the 30 yard “circle” at the moment the bowler delivers the ball. If these rules are contravened, the umpire will call No Ball. All no balls will result in a free hit for the next legitimate delivery.

10. A legside wide shall be called if, irrespective of where the ball pitches, it passes outside the line of the batsman and the leg stump, despite his movement. The umpires will apply a strict interpretation for off-side wides. To help with this therefore clubs should ensure the standard 17 inch markings are applied as they are for Saturday league games.

11. Bowling limits: maximum 4 overs per bowler for a game of 16 overs or longer, otherwise 3 overs per bowler. If a bowler is replaced for injury or other reason during an over, the partial over counts as one over for the original and replacement bowler.

12. In the first innings, the fielding side may use a substitute for a nominated player who is late. Once the substitute has fielded for 10 overs in these circumstances, he cannot then be replaced, and he becomes a full member of the team, and may bowl and bat.

13. Captains are encouraged to consider reducing the number of overs for the first couple of Tuesdays in May. Experience shows these often end in the gloom if a full 20 over match is played.

14. Games can be re-arranged for later in the same week if the match is unable to take place or be completed on the scheduled date. This decision must be made by midnight of the scheduled date and communicated to the Competition Secretary or the match will be considered as cancelled or abandoned as appropriate with points allocated as per rule 14 below.

15. In the round-robin stages, the winner, the team scoring the most runs irrespective of wickets fallen, gets 2 points, the loser 0 points. If the sides finish level, the result is a tie (1 point each). In cancelled and abandoned games each side gets 1 point. If a team concedes a game, the non-conceding team will be awarded a win with 2 points. In the knock-out semi-finals and final if the scores finish level a Super Over with take place. The team batting second in the original match will bat first in the Super Over. A team will be deemed all out if it loses 2 wickets in the super over. A second super over will be held if the scores are level after the first super over.

16. Any matter not provided for in these rules, and any disputes arising from the rules, will be determined by the competition organisers, and their decision will be final.

17. The competition adopts the ECB’s Recreational Conduct Regulations which can be found on the ECB web-site at this link https://resources.ecb.co.uk/ecb/document/2023/03/01/e83cc03a-3671-42e5-a433-c0c1d50b360c/27.-RCR.pdf

18. The competition Disciplinary Officer will be John Hunt, Secretary of Cheltenham Cricket Club, who can be contacted via email at Cheltenhamleague@aol.com. In the event of a disciplinary issue being reported, the Disciplinary Officer will convene a panel of 3 people to include an umpires’ representative and a member of one of the League’s participating clubs not involved in the incident. In the event that Cheltenham CC are involved in a disciplinary issue, the Disciplinary Officer will identify someone from a club not involved in the incident to chair the disciplinary committee.