Junior Policies

Brunswick Cricket Club (Inc.)

Junior Policies

VICTORIAN SUB-DISTRICT CRICKET ASSOCIATION

ABN 81 496 403 494

PO Box 9, Brunswick West 3055

http://brunswick.vic.cricket.com.au

1) Background:

As a growing community club, BCC aims to provide an opportunity for boys and girls and men and women to be active and participate in a positive club environment.

This purpose of this document is to define policy guidelines for player registration, junior team allocation/selection and the approach to player participation and team competition in junior grades. In doing so the document provides the basis for:-

1) Junior sub-committee decisions related to team allocations

2) Team coach management of player participation in junior teams

3) Junior sub-committee oversight and support for team coach management of teams

The adoption of this policy is aimed at providing a fair and equitable process to best benefit all players, parents and the club and enables clear communication of these processes to players and parents and for them to be referenced at any point throughout the season.

Through the application of this policy the club endeavours to provide our junior players and parents with an experience that is aligned with the club’s purpose and values that are documented in Appendix A.

The Junior co-ordinator will have authority from the club committee to apply the guidelines documented within this policy.

2) Player Registration Policy and Process

Purpose: To define the process and measures to be taken by the Club to provide a fair and equitable registration process to benefit the club and it’s players.

Registration Process:

A primary objective of the club’s purpose and values is to enable as many young people within our community as possible to participate in playing the sport. In order to best facilitate this, the club will:-

· Aim to field more than one team at each graded age level to enable players to play at a level that enhances both their individual and team co-ordination skills, confidence and self esteem

· Ensure that the registration process is accessible to all whilst managing registrations within maximum team sizes

Players are considered registered for the club for the current season when they have completed the club and relevant association registration forms and have paid the season registration fee or have made an arrangement with the club regarding payment of fees. All registration fees should be received at the time of registration or by the final registration date ahead of the forthcoming season. These dates will be published on the club website. The club will utilise online registration facilities provided via the MyCricket website as well as providing an ‘offline’ registration process.

The normal maximum number of players to be registered for a team will be two more than the maximum number of players permitted to be played or on the field in any one game i.e 10 for u10s, 9 for u13 girls, 13 for u12-16.

If at any time through the registration period the maximum number of players is reached for an age group team, the acceptance of a registration form and the allocation of a player to a team cannot be guaranteed. In those instances the club reserves the right to accept a player’s registration or not on the basis of the club’s ability to allocate a player into a team after evaluating options such as player rotation rosters or merged team’s with another club(s).

When determining the registration process in any season the junior committee and/or junior co-ordinator will plan for:

· Communications with existing and potential players and all players from the previous season are contacted by email/phone/text and notified about the registration process and timelines

o Contact will endeavor to be made prior to the opening of the registration process to ascertain player’s likely intent to play in the forthcoming season

· Communications with local schools to provide registration information to students and to request the opportunity for the club to present at a school assembly

· A variety of opportunities for players to register e.g online via mycricket, registration day at the club, registration via email to junior co-ordinator

· Once the final registration day at the club has concluded all players that have indicated their intent to register and play, but have not registered, should be contacted to determine their ability/intent to register and play in the forthcoming season.

The registration process, either online or via hardcopy forms, will facilitate players/parents nominating the age group to play in. All other information that is required to register a player into the relevant associations will need to be captured on the registration forms. This includes but may not be limited to date of birth, sex, email address, home address, telephone contact number(s).

Fees:

Annual registration fees are set by the Club committee and will be set at a level that is deemed to be fair and reasonable to partially cover the costs borne by the club that include, but are not limited to, ground hire, equipment purchase, training, coaching, umpiring, team registration, match balls, and facilities operational costs.

In order for the club to be accessible to all, the club does not want financial hardship to be a barrier to participation. Parents having difficulty with the payment of registration fees may engage with the committee on a confidential basis to arrange a payment plan or possible fee reductions on the basis of personal hardship.

In setting the annual registration fees the club will do so based on a planned budget for the forthcoming season and as a not-for-profit entity all fees are used for the benefit of the club and it’s players.

In order to be fair and equitable to the broad membership base of the club, all junior fees, funds and expenses will be managed via a separate set of accounts within the club’s overall financial accounts.

Pro-rata and refund of fees

In recognition that a portion of the annual registration fee is to cover fixed costs in fielding teams within a season, players who join the club prior to the New Year break in the junior team fixture will be required to pay full fees. Players that join after the New Year break will pay fees on a pro rata basis.

Where a player has been unable to be placed within a team by the Club or if the player withdraws:

· Prior to competition starting or the player commencing playing or

· Within one month of competition starting or the player commencing playing

a full refund will be paid. In such instance, if the player has received any piece of uniform as part of their fees they will be required to return each item of uniform.

If a player withdraws more than one month after competition starting or the player commencing playing no refund will be paid.

3) Player Team Allocation/Selection Policy Guidelines

The policy guidelines for player allocation/selection into teams aim to meet and balance the following key objectives:

· Provide an environment that is safe, inclusive and accessible to all

· Provide an environment that supports and enables player participation and enjoyment

· Provide an environment that supports player skill development

· Fielding of competitive teams

The club believes that the development of individual players is best enabled by players playing in their eligible age group. The cut-off date for age entry into the relevant under-age level for cricket in Australia is Sept 1 of the current year. Thus a player’s age as of 31-Aug will determine the age group they are eligible to play in. Consideration will be given by the committee for players to play above their age group on a case by case basis and players/parents must apply to the committee for approval to play above their age group. In determining whether to approve such requests, the junior committee will assess based on criteria that includes, but is not limited to, player safety, player skill development, and balance of player numbers. For the purposes of this policy ‘age groups’ are defined by two-year age groups i.e U10, U12, U14, U16. Where the club fields teams in ‘odd’ age groups e.g u13, u15, they will also be defined as two-year age groups for the purposes of age eligibility.

The Club reserves the right to make any final decision on a player’s team allocation. The junior co-ordinator will manage the allocation decisions in conjunction with team coaches and the junior match committee as needed, with the aim to allocate teams that best benefit the club’s junior program and to the collective benefit of all players whilst considering individual needs.

The following primary criteria will be taken into consideration in the selection of two or more teams within a graded age level or where player numbers are to be balanced between ‘one-year’ age groups. In most cases decisions will be made by applying a balance of each criteria as they will not always be mutually exclusive criteria.

Based on experience, the Club recognizes that in graded age level competitions, player development, self-esteem and enjoyment is less likely to be developed if they are playing in a grade significantly above or below their current sporting or social abilities. The Club understands the importance of friendships as a key factor in children starting to and continuing to play team sports, as well as the need for this to be balanced with other considerations with the aim of creating competitive teams and providing opportunities for players to develop skills.

U10:

· Friendship Groups

· Balance of team numbers

· Sufficient adult helpers for roles such as coach and team manager to enable effective team operation

U12/13:

· Player age i.e Top or Bottom age within the two year age group

· Friendship groups

· Player Skill and confidence level i.e individual player competitiveness at a graded level

· Balance of team numbers within a maximum cap

· Team balance and competitiveness for all teams within the age level

· Sufficient adult helpers for roles such as coach and team manager to enable effective team operation

U13 Girls:

· Friendship Groups

· Balance of team numbers within a maximum cap

· Sufficient adult helpers for roles such as coach and team manager to enable effective team operation

U14-16:

· Player Skill and confidence level i.e individual player competitiveness at a graded level

· Balance of team numbers within a maximum cap

· Team balance and competitiveness for all teams within the age level

· Sufficient adult helpers for roles such as coach and team manager to enable effective team operation

· Note: Friendship groups will be a secondary criteria at these age levels as it is considered that the other criteria are likely to have a higher relative weighting to team allocation decisions.

Where the club fields two teams in an age group, coaches may rotate players between differently graded teams for the purpose of player skill and/or social development and also team balance and competitiveness.

4) Player participation and team competition guidelines

Final decisions on team grade allocations may be made by the relevant association and thus out of the club’s immediate control, however, the Club will aim to enter teams into the highest grade possible in which they are anticipated to be competitive in.

On deciding the appropriate grade level, the emphasis will be on the overall team level of competitiveness rather than the competitiveness or higher or lower skilled players. The opportunity for young people to participate in a team sport provides for the development of co-operative team skills, self-esteem, social and sporting skills. The club believes this is likely to be enhanced when teams are able to compete in a grade whereby they can be competitive on the scoreboard. This is the basis for the club’s objective to field competitive teams and support player skill development.

Given the nature of two-year age group teams, it is possible that individual players may alternate between a tougher year and an easier year in terms of them being challenged individually within a graded team.

U10s:

The U10 competition is an ungraded competition that is structured as an entry point for young players into competitive games of cricket. The primary objective is for player participation and development of individual and team co-operation skills.

The game format is designed to provide equal participation in batting, bowling and fielding for all players within an 8-person team. In cases where teams have more than the maximum number of players, coaches will rotate players on and off the ground in order to maximize individual participation within each game.

U13 Girls:

At the time of writing, the U13 girl’s competition is an ungraded competition that is structured as an entry point for young players into competitive games of cricket. The primary objective is for player participation and development of individual and team co-operation skills.

The game format is designed to provide equal participation in batting, bowling and fielding for all players within a 7-person team. In cases where teams have more than the maximum number of players, coaches will rotate players on and off the ground in order to maximize individual participation within each game.

U12/13s:

The u12 (NWMCA) and u13 (NMCA) competitions are graded competitions that introduce players to the more traditional format and rules of the game of cricket. Matches are played with a hard ball and enforce standard dismissal rules such that a ‘batter is out when they are out’ The competition format also has rules that encourage player participation in all aspects of the game e.g minimum number of overs for all players and voluntary retirement of batters.

At this age group, the approach to competition will continue to adopt the primary objective of player participation, development of player’s individual skills and knowledge of the game and team co-operation. All players will bat and bowl in games as equally as possible with some discretion from the coach as to how they distribute any extra overs between batters and bowlers depending on the number of players in the side and the format of the match ie. One-day or two-day. Coaches will adopt an approach of voluntary retirement for batters to ensure equal participation amongst the players.

At u13 level, the approach to voluntary retirement in one-day games may be implemented across multiple one-day (T20) games such that players have equal opportunity across multiple games rather than trying to give equal participation within one-day games which can limit each individual’s opportunity to develop skills such as batting for longer periods of time.

Coaches should also provide opportunity for all players to bat ‘up’ and ‘down’ the order and to bowl at different stages of the innings during the season. This approach aims to provide players with the experience of batting and bowling at different times in the innings and to enable development of skills into future specialized positions e.g opening batters, opening bowlers. It should be noted that the voluntary retirement rule in these games lessens the need to significantly rotate the batting orders and coaches will have discretion to determine the team batting orders based on their understanding of each player’s ability (e.g not all players will benefit from opening the batting) and individual player’s preferences (e.g not all players want to bat up the order).

Coaches should also provide opportunity to players who wish to be a wicketkeeper during games. The club recognizes that not all players want to wicket-keep during games so full rotation into that position is not an expectation on the coaches at this age level.

U14s:

The u14 competitions are graded competitions that further extend the traditional format and rules of the game of cricket beyond the u12/13 level. Matches are played with a hard ball and enforce standard dismissal rules such that a ‘batter is out when they are out’. The competition format also has rules that encourage player participation but not to the same extent as in the U12 format e.g voluntary retirement of batters, maximum over limits but no minimum over requirements for all players.

The approach to participation and competition at this age level is to provide all players with the opportunity to bat and bowl in games, but that may not mean equal distribution of overs as coaches will have discretion in how they balance participation and competition. However players at this level should be given the opportunity to bowl a minimum number of overs per match in order to develop their skills in match situations. As a guideline, depending on the number of players in a team, coaches should aim for all players to bowl a minimum of 2 overs in one-day games and 3 overs in 2-day games. Consideration will be given where individual players prefer not to bowl by choice or because they are a designated wicketkeeper.

Coaches will utilize the voluntary retirement rules for batters to ensure all players have the opportunity to bat in games. For one-day games, coaches will have discretion to provide opportunity to bat over multiple one-day games given the difficulty in providing the opportunity for all players to bat in the overs available in one day games whilst aiming to develop skills such as batting for longer periods of time.

At u14 level it is expected that the wicket-keeper position is becoming a more specialized position, however coaches should provide opportunity to players who wish to be a wicketkeeper during games. Coaches will have discretion in allocating this role through the season with consideration to the collective benefit of the team.

U15/16s:

The u15/16 competitions are graded competitions that slightly extend the format and rules of the game beyond the u14 level. Typically the changes are related to the batting and bowling restrictions on individual players, whilst maintaining rules that encourage player participation e.g voluntary retirement of batters, maximum over limits but no minimum over requirements for all players.

At this age group, the approach to competition will continue to adopt the primary objective of player participation, development of player’s individual skills and knowledge of the game and team co-operation whilst balancing that with the objective of fielding competitive teams and developing skills applicable to longer forms of cricket.

Ensuring that all players have opportunities to participate and develop their skills in a match situation continues to be important at these age levels. Coaches should ensure that all players are given opportunities regularly through the season to bat and bowl, although not all players may bat or bowl each week. This balance between participation and competition will likely vary depending on whether teams are in higher or lower grades.

Coaches will utilize the voluntary retirement rules for batters to ensure all players have the opportunity to bat in games. For one-day games, coaches will have discretion to provide opportunity to bat over multiple one-day games given the difficulty in providing the opportunity for all players to bat in one day games whilst also trying to develop skills such as batting for longer periods of time.

Coaches should also provide opportunity for all players to bat ‘up’ and ‘down’ the order and to bowl at different stages of the innings during the season. This approach aims to provide players with the experience of batting and bowling at different times in the innings, however at these higher age levels this will be balanced with the development of player skills in specialized positions e.g opening batters, opening bowlers. It should be noted that the voluntary retirement rule in these games lessens the need to significantly rotate the batting orders and coaches will have discretion to determine the team batting orders based on their understanding of each player’s ability (e.g not all players will benefit from opening the batting) and individual player’s preferences (e.g not all players want to bat up the order).

At u16 level it is expected that the wicket-keeper position is a more specialized position and coaches will have discretion in allocating this role such that it is to the collective benefit of the team.

Appendix A: Brunswick Cricket Club Statement of Purpose

Statement of Purpose

· Be a community based cricket club for the enjoyment and development of all its members

· Provide an environment that is safe, inclusive and accessible to all.

· Facilitate fielding of teams that are competitive, disciplined and well drilled.

In enacting the club’s purpose, the club will promote a culture where-

· Fairness and integrity is valued

· The rights and worth of every person is respected

· All members are encouraged and given opportunities to develop their skills to the fullest potential within competitive teams

· The importance of co-operative skills within a team environment is promoted

· A healthy active lifestyle is promoted

· The club’s history is valued and preserved

· We enjoy our time together and celebrate each other’s successes

· On-field and off-field contributions to the club are valued and promoted

Values

· Respect for others

· Inclusiveness

· Integrity

· Development of players within competitive teams

· Teamwork and participation

· Enjoyment

· Respect for club history