Cricket club stumped in court battle

A LOCAL cricket club that has been losing players and sponsors has lost an initial court battle for promotion to the Western Cape’s top league.

Glamorgan Cricket Club brought an urgent application in the Western Cape High Court after it lost its bid to be promoted from the B-league to the the A-league.

But the court found it wasn’t urgent and struck it from the roll.

The club will now have to resubmit its application. This was a result of having been found to have infringed one of the Western Province Cricket Association’s (WPCA) “by-laws”.

The club’s woes began in March, when it played a match against UCT. According to an

Glamorgan lost its bid to be promoted from the B-league

affidavit by WPCA deputy president Nick Kock, the university’s team laid a complaint against Glamorgan.

The association’s Local League Committee held an inquiry and the club was found guilty of contravening a by-law. It was not clear, however, exactly what the contravention related to, except that it was about the state of the pitch.

As a result of the committee’s finding, Glamorgan’s points for the match were forfeited and it slipped from top of the B-league – a spot that would have bumped the club into the A-league – to third.

The club lodged an appeal, which was heard by an appeal committee in April; however, this was dismissed.

In August, the club took the dispute to Cricket South Africa (CSA) for arbitration, but Kock’s affidavit said that the arbitrator had found that Glamorgan had to have done so within three days of the WPCA appeal committee’s decision.

Their next step was to take the matter to the high court.

But in court yesterday, Judge Dennis Davisstruck the matter from the roll. He found that club hadn’t made out a proper case that it’s application was urgent.

Glamorgan’s advocate, Ross Wynne, earlier argued that the club, as a result of remaining in the B-league, was losing sponsors and players ahead of the start of the cricket season on October 20..

But advocate Kate Reynolds, for the WPCA, argued that much of the club’s loss had already taken place and that there was no clear indication in their court papers of what further loss they stood to suffer.

Judge Davis highlighted that the club hadn’t set out three things: an explanation for why it had taken so long to take the matter to CSA for arbitration, whether it would be practical for him to issue an order with such a limited time period until the start of the season and what prejudice it would suffer should it not get an order in its favour.