CRICKET CLUB STRIPPED OF FLAGS
SALARY CAP SCANDAL
DISGRACED Geelong Cricket Association club Bell Park has vowed to appeal penalties handed down for a “significant” breach of the salary cap.
THE Geelong Cricket Association believes a raft of penalties imposed on Bell Park will deter other clubs from flouting the rules.
League president Rob Vines said clubs were on notice after his board handed down arguably the most significant penalty in GCA history on Monday night, stripping the Dragons of three premierships and relegating the club to Division 3 for a salary cap breach.
“If you are a club that is out there knowingly exceeding the rules, well you might be feeling nervous,” Vines said in a joint press conference with Bell Park president Rodney Brown.
“But if you are not, you have nothing to worry about.
“It’s all driven by the culture and decision-making of clubs. The rules are set and everyone knows what they are, so then it becomes a choice. You either comply or you don’t.
“If you don’t, you run a risk. If you take the course and a breach is discovered, then clearly the ramifications are serious and they need to have a level of seriousness about them to be a sufficient deterrent.
“It’s a warning in the sense that (if) there’s clubs out there making the wrong choices, that’s the risk they are taking.”
While Vines insisted no other GCA club was presently under investigation for breaching their salary cap, he acknowledged the speculation that suggested cheating was rife.
“My hope and my belief is a majority of clubs comply. Do I believe in the tooth fairy that all clubs are? Probably not,” he said.
“I suspect some clubs are taking a risk, but it’s pretty plain for all to see that if you are taking a risk and you get found out, the ramifications are serious for your club.”
Vines said Bell Park’s breach would encourage the GCA to investigate other alleged under-the-table payments.
“We look at these things and we think ‘That’s interesting’,” Vines said of rumoured player evaluations.
“We will act on evidence brought before us, and if we think we need to have a look, we will. The question is, when we have a look, will we find any evidence that will enable us to find an outcome like this one?
“We won’t always find what we want, but does this board have an appetite to look where we think we should? Yes we do.
“Will we investigate evidence brought to us, of course we will.”
Under mandatory regulations, Bell Park was stripped of premierships and relegated. Vines said the rules left no room to alter these penalties, but the $5000 fine came at the discretion of the investigations committee.
“The demotion to Division 3 is a consequential impact of games now lost in terms of the club assessment recalculation and that landed Bell Park at the bottom of the ladder based on a two-year rolling average,” Vines said.
“I have been concerned by the way that it (relegation) could cause possible imbalance in the way that the competitions now function, but it remains to be seen how it plays out in the coming season.”