Whistle Blowing Procedure for ECB’s Disability Cricket Leagues
Background
The game of cricket for people with a disability has evolved greatly in recent years with the emergence of competitive leagues and cups within our domestic set up.
The introduction of International representative teams has also created the opportunity for individuals to benefit from international travel, media exposure and ECB funding.
The commitment from ECB to professionalise the game of cricket for people with a disability and the enhanced opportunity that can be enjoyed by players has brought about the need to ensure transparency in the game. People with a disability can quickly be accused of “cheating” or “having the wrong classification to play the game”. The whisperings that can go on surrounding this can leave the credibility of the game in question and with this in mind the ECB’s Disability Management Committee has introduced this Whistle Blowing procedure to define a process that will allow all teams or players the opportunity to raise the question of someone’s categorisation if necessary.
Role of Individual
An individual wishing to question another player’s classification must notify their club/county and ask their club/county to put their concerns in writing to their specific disability cricket governing body, for example BACD/ECAD.
Role of Club/County
The club’s committee to discuss any player/players concern of wrongful categorisation of another individual.
If the club’s/county’s committee perceives there is a case to be answered they will write to their own Leagues’ Organising Committee to highlight their concerns of a player/players within the game.
Role of Disability Leagues Organising Committee
Once an allegation has been made by two or more clubs then the information collected by the League Organising Committee will be forwarded to the ECB’s Classification Appeals Committee.
To collect the information from clubs that have lodged a complaint against a player.
Role of ECB Disability Management Committee
To elect a “Classification Appeals Committee” that consists of four individuals.
One representative from each of the recognised disability groups, Visually Impaired, Physical Disability, Learning Disability and Deaf.
Each individual to be proposed by their own specific disability governing body, for example BACD.
The individual has to have a thorough understanding of the classification system for his/her impairment group and be able to articulate such to the appeals committee.
Role of Classification Appeals Committee
To identify a qualified specialist in each Disability Group to carry out independent classification for the highlighted individual.
To liase with the highlighted individual and the qualified specialist to organise a suitable time and place for an independent classification to be carried out.
To feedback to both the highlighted individual and to the Disability Group’s Governing Body on the results of the classification.
Recommendations
To enable players to continue playing whilst they are awaiting Independent classification.
To penalise a club that has participated in matches (in that current season) with a player of the wrong categorisation in their team. This could be scaled relatively to how wrong the classification was.
To enable each Disability Group’s Organising Body to develop their own system of penalisation for both player and club.