BCF General Rules & Administration – 2016

1. Eligibility Policy 1) The BCFEC decides every year on the financial and administrative conditions under which the clubs can participate in the BCF Competitions. If these conditions are not explicitly specified for the year concerned, then the conditions in effect the year before will remain valid until decided otherwise.
2) The BCFEC has the sole authority to judge whether or not a club complies with the conditions as identified under article 1.1.
3) The eligibility conditions are described in a separate document named “League Committee BCF – Eligibility Conditions”.
2. Player Registration & Identification Policy 1) Only players properly registered with the BCF LC by the club they are playing for are allowed to participate in BCF organized games.
2) The registration as mentioned in article 2.1 consists of the players’ family name, first name, nationality, gender, address, nationality, ID card number and date of birth.
3) A player shall not be considered registered before the club has received a confirmation of his registration from the BCF LC.
4) A registration application has to be received at the BCF LC at least 2 days prior to the start of the game he/she would like to participate in. The registration date and time on the application or on the email or the postmark on the letter shall serve as reference.   For a Saturday game, the player must be registered in the centralized BCF application by Thursday midnight. For a Sunday game, the registration process must be completed before Friday midnight. In case the centralized BCF application is not available then via email/phone BCF League chairman must be informed of the registration 2 days prior to the start of the game.
5) Each player participating in any BCF competition games must have his photo uploaded in the centralized BCF application. This helps in identifying the player.
6) In exceptional circumstances, the LC may agree to waive the strict application of the registration deadline in article 4 provided the club’s request is made in writing and duly motivated.
7) Each player participating in any BCF competition games must be able to provide proof of his identity by presenting an identity card or residence card issued by a country of the European Union or an international passport or any photo identity card at the venue if requested to do so. In the exceptional event that a player does not possess any official photo identification document, he may request a special document from the LC be used to identify him at the venue. This document should be requested in writing/email at least 7 working days prior to the venue. A query on the identity of a player can be made by the captain of the opposing team at any time between the handover of the player nomination sheet and the toss. In case a player can not produce his proof of identity document on the spot, a note will be logged on the score sheet and he must send a copy of this document to the BCF LC no later than 18:00 on the first (Belgian) business day after the game. The responsibility of the umpire(s) is limited to correctly logging the challenge on the score sheet while the decision (and associated risk) to nominate a player that was challenged remains with the captain. In case a team wants to challenge a player after the toss (or even after completion of the game, the procedures for an administrative complaint should be followed).
8) If a club fails to nominate a player according to the rules as described above in this article, the team playing a non-registered player for the first time of the current competition year is deemed to have lost the match and the team shall receive a €100 fine. Bonus points (if any) earned by the team will not be given. The opponent in case have lost the match will be given points equivalent of a win without bonus points. When the opponent have won the match, then they will get points equivalent of a win including the bonus points (if any). For any further registration offence, in addition to losing the points as described above, the team shall receive a €100 fine. A fine is to be paid within 10 (Belgian) business days upon receipt of the ruling.
9) If the LC is convinced that there was a genuine attempt to abuse the player registration or identification process, it can exceptionally decide on a deduction of the league points from the first offence.
3. Transfer Policy 1) A player can only play competition cricket for one club during the year.
2) The official transfer period is fixed between January 1st and March 31st of every calendar year.
3) The player must inform the club chairman of his old club of his intention to move to a new club.
4) Any player can change clubs during this transfer period. A written transfer request or email should sent to the LC, the chairman of the club the player is leaving and the club chairman of the new club. The chairman of the club he is leaving should let the LC know that there are no problems with the player asking for a transfer. When both clubs have agreed to the transfer the LC shall agree to the change of clubs.
5) If the former club has any valid objections against the transfer request, then this objection shall be dealt with using the procedures in place to deal with an administrative complaint.
6) No transfers may be made outside the prescribed transfer period.
4. Second Team Policy
1) Clubs that would like to enter two teams in the either BCF league or the T/20 competition must have a minimum of 25 eligible players registered no later than one week before the start of the season.
2) In case a club participates in the BCF League Competition with more than one team, then BCF LC nominates four “starred players” (based on the previous year statistics) before the start of the competition year.
3) The star player policy is not applicable for the BCF T20 Competition. The second team in the BCF T20 Competition is treated as a separate team. Hence, a player is allowed to play only for one team in a BCF T20 Cup. Any violation of this article will result in the team losing the game and forfeit of all league points obtained in that game.
4) If during the competition year it becomes apparent that the “starred players” cannot be considered the best players of a team, then the LC has the right to change the list of these  “starred players”. The LC will inform the club in case such a change is needed in writing or email. Such a change shall not be made in the 48 hours running up to a league game for the club concerned.
5) If a star player leaves the country or has a long-term injury or will not be playing during the season for other reasons such as work, the club must inform the LC. In case LC finds out that this information was deliberately not shared there will be a fine of up to 100 EUR.
6) In any second team game, no more than 2 starred players are allowed, as long as these individuals do not participate in more than 50% of second team games.
7) A club must take into account the number of games a star player has played for the second team. A star player can be a captain of the second team but he is also allowed only for 50% of the games.
8) Playing a second team game with more than 2 starred players or a star player representing more than 50% of his allowed quota will result in the team losing the game and forfeit of all league points obtained in that game irrespective of the team winning/losing the game.
a. LC must be informed via e-mail or phone by the Club 2 days prior to the second team fixture when this policy is going to be violated. This is done to provide a chance to play cricket and avoid the travel cost and efforts of umpires and opponent.  b. When LC is not informed the team in addition to losing all the points earned in the game will get a fine of 100 EUR.
9) A second team will be given the championship title but for promotion they need to demonstrate their case for having two teams in the same league to BCF LC and BCF EC. Promotion will be reviewed by the BCF LC & BCF EC to see if they genuinely have two teams.
10) In case a first and second team of the same club compete in the same division, they should schedule and complete their direct encounter early in the competition year to ensure fairness (covering home and away fixtures if applicable). The Club must identify 11 star players (based on the previous year statistics) who will be allowed to only play for the first team. These 11 star players will not be allowed to play for the second team under any circumstances. The player list must be sent across the League Committee before March 15th of the calendar year. See also: League Committee – BCF Eligibility Conditions: Para 7, sub-para 7.
11) A second team playing in a division other than the lowest must always be a genuine second team (as defined in article 4.4). If a team breaches this requirement, then the game concerned will be awarded to the opposition and the team will be stripped of all bonus points obtained from that game. Additionally, the second team will be relegated to the lowest division at the end of the competition year.

5. Minimum Age Policy 1) No club is permitted to play a player in a Senior League fixture who is, at the day of the game, under the age of 15 years.
2) For any player under the age of 18 years on the day of the fixture to be authorised to play in a Senior League fixture, a written and signed declaration of a parent or legal guardian of the player is required allowing the player to take part in an adult competitive cricket fixture. This declaration must be provided to the BCFA before the registration can be completed. This declaration is valid until their 18th birthday or until revoked by a parent or legal guardian.
6. Fixtures Policy 1) No changes in agreed dates and starting hours are allowed for BCF Competition fixtures after April 1st. After April 1st, fixtures must be played on these dates unless rearranged under exceptional conditions by the League Committee.
2) In case of natural calamities or a fixture clash with the National side or any other BCF organized competition, the teams should make a genuine attempt to reschedule the fixture once. When the fixture couldn’t be played on the rescheduled date then it will not be postponed further and the game will be considered as “Draw”. Equal points will be given to both the teams.
7. Starting Time and Delays 1) Fixtures should start at the time agreed and published in the fixture list of the Belgian Cricket League.
2) A team that is not in a position to complete the toss 15 minutes prior to the scheduled start of the fixture shall lose the toss by default.
3) A team delaying the start of the fixture by failing to have enough players present at the scheduled start time + 10 minutes, shall lose 10% of the maximum points attainable in a fixture.
4) For each 30 minutes (first block = scheduled start time + 30 minutes) a team is unable to start the fixture because of late arrival, an additional 10% of the maximum attainable points in a fixture will be deducted.
5) In case the start of a league fixture gets delayed more than 120 minutes (T20 Cup – 60 minutes), the fixture will be considered as forfeited by the team holding up the start and article 8 will be applied.
6) In exceptional circumstance, the LC can decide to not implement the punishment.
8) Fixture Forfeit Policy 1) If a club forfeits a fixture, the fixture concerned will be awarded to the opposition and the club forfeiting shall receive a first warning.
2) For teams forfeiting fixtures, the following shall apply:

In case of a first offence by that team during the current competition year, the team will be deducted points equivalent to a win (20 points).

In case of a second offense by that team in addition to the deduction of points, the club forfeiting shall receive a fine of 100 EUR.

In case of  the