The article from Paul Reynolds a few days back resulted in a response from Simon Reynolds [see below] about the extra burden that this puts on captains. It is a reasonable concern and one that may be shared by others. It deserves a fuller response than a simply comment.
There are three main reasons for seeking a competed scorecard for all league and cup matches:
- for the first time ever we are able to produce averages and match details for all leagues and cups. While not everyone agrees there appears to be a strong interest among players to publish player statistics, averages, MVP and match details. The articles by Craig Senior produced a great response last season and apart from the interest in individual performances it helps to bind the whole league together. For once it is not just about the 1st or 2nd Division of the OC but involves everyone. The challenge, however, is that the system is only as good as the weakest link in the chain. If some clubs do not send in scorecards it is not just their players whose performances are not recorded but that of those they are playing against. Hence the effort to get everyone to fill in the scorecards - even allowing that it makes more work for captains,
- Cricket Leinster are encouraging clubs to adopt iPads [and other suitable devices] to score matches. This was introduced for Open Competition D1 level last year and is being advanced in D2 and Womens D1 this year. It is also used by some clubs for other matches. This is something that we hope to pilot in some youth competitions this year as well. Although it takes a little more effort to set up initially, and the club or someone within the club must have an iPad or PC that can be used, moving to electronic scoring will remove much of the burden of compiling scorecards from paper scorebooks and submitting results to Cricket Leinster. Great strides have been made over the past couple of years and it is hoped that the latest move will see more clubs adopt this approach to scoring matches,
- finally, there is a lot of work involved in compiling cricket statistics and a lot of voluntary effort put in by a small group of people including Paul Reynolds, Craig Senior and Gerry Byrne [and others for women and youth competitions] and anything that can be done to improve the quality of the data coming to them is to be welcomed. Compiling better scorecards and linking this up with registered players [who now all have unique cricketing IDs] will make things much easier in the future. Using iPads/PC for scoring or to recreate match scorecards afterwards is the way forward.
So these are the main reasons for looking for the additional information. As always we are reliant on the engagement of clubs. This year we are going to try to capture all the relevant information. We will review matters at the end of the season and if there is a general feeling that this is not the way to go and that the compilation of statistics below certain levels is not required then we can look at it again. We promise that we won’t look for details on what people had for tea or how many drinks they had afterwards.
As a postscript it also worth mentioning that as we collect information from scorecards clubs will be able to run Fantasy Leagues that include all their matches or based on particular leagues. Fantasy Leagues are great ways of raising money for your club [or for other good causes] in a way that gets everyone involved. There are lots of different rules that can be used once you have the basic data. Hopefully this year this will all be available and anyone can use it.
Article
The way scorecards have been collected over the last half dozen years has changed drastically. Over the winter YMCA (and not Pembroke as I thought!) posted on their Facebook page a copy of the postcards that had to have rudimentary match details entered, before the walk to the post box to send it to Michael Sharp.
Much has changed. Cricket Leinster has been using CricketStatz in conjunction with Total Cricket Scorer for the last few seasons, and that partnership will be continuing this year. A guide for submitting a scorecard can be found at the guidance page - nothing is any different to last year.
There is one small change though. Many teams use Total Cricket Scorer to submit scorecards, either on a PC, or on the RSA sponsored iPads (and the TCS app on the iPad has been massively improved, taking on board most of the requests of our scorers!). These scorecards give all the information we need, especially for those games in the top few divisions.
But scorecards below this level are still often incomplete, so this season, we will be requiring ALL details on scorecards to be filled in. That means partnerships, catchers, run outs and who the captains and wicketkeepers are.
This will mean that captains will need to make sure that those doing the scorebook are doing it properly. Cards will be returned to captains if they are not submitted properly.
And if your scorers aren't up to the job, the LCU&SA are running a Level 1 scorers course on Sunday 25th May, so you have no excuses!
Comment
Is this not a little bit over-the-top? Catchers, partnerships, wks…next we’ll need to put down what was had for tea and who prepared the drinks.
There’s more than enough that goes into the non-cricketing side of matches for captains in the lower leagues as it is, I hope this isn’t enforced too strictly.