Carew CC was crowned champions of the Pembroke County Cricket Club division one. (Source: Western Telegraph)
A county cricket club (Carew CC) from Wales has caused a lot of stir in the cricketing world after denying their rivals (Cresselly) a chance to secure title-winning season. This was after the club declared controversially with the scoreboard on 18/1. As a result of their declaration, Carew CC was declared as the champions of the Pembroke County Cricket Club division one after beating rivals Cresselly on the final day. Noticeably, this was within the rules but has been considered against the spirit of the game.
It may be recalled here that according to rules of the League one bowling bonus point is awarded for every two wickets taken in an innings. While batting, one bonus point is awarded for every 40 runs scored, up to a maximum of five.
However, Welsh side have claimed that they were “hard done by” after the controversial declaration. Carew were 21 points clear and with 20 points for a win, declared on 18-1 to deny Cresselly the chance of any batting or bowling bonus points.
So after being put into bat, Carew declared on 18-1 after 2.3 over. This saw Cresselly chase down the total in two overs and win the game, but lost the title by a single point.
Cresselly released a statement saying, ” We obviously feel hard done by at not being able to play a proper game to determine the winner of Division One. Having beaten Carew in the league and village cup we felt confident we could do it.
“On the toss, our captain elected to field as we felt it was the best way of winning the game with such a tight margin. Thinking that Carew would want to beat us the right way and show everyone they are indeed the very best, their choice to declare and deliberately lose was at odds with their title of champions of the county.
“Some people have asked if we think ‘deliberately losing’ is match fixing and if we wanted to go down that road. We will leave that up to Pembroke County Cricket Club to decide. We are very disappointed but we want to move on.
Meanwhile, a Carew statement read: “In consequence of the coverage of this matter in some sections of the media, we, as a club, have decided not to comment further. We stand together.”
