Park fielded 2nd xi overseas player in 1st xi without permission and now face drop

The closing stages of the Love Lane Liverpool Competition season have been marred by another big points deduction, with Birkenhead Park plunged into the Premier Division relegation places.

Park have become the second Premier Division club to be penalised 80 points over player registration problems, after the same happened to Newton-le-Willows last month.

The Comp’s management committee – who until yesterday had not released an official comment on Newton – said: “Owing to information emerging late in the season, two Premier Division clubs, Newton-le-Willows and Birkenhead Park, have breached the league’s playing and registration regulations. 

“Sanctions involving deductions of points, 80 in both cases, have been applied to these clubs.

“The two matters are unrelated and, although both sanctions have been mitigated for separate reasons, the same process of arising at the sanctions has been followed. 

“It is a coincidence that the number of points deducted is the same.”

The ECHO understands Park’s penalty relates to an overseas player who was registered for their 2nd XI but stepped up a level to the 1st XI after the departure mid-season of Pakistani all-rounder Safi Abdullah.

The league’s regulations state: “All overseas players must be registered to play at a particular level (eg 1st XI) at the time of registration and cannot play at a different level without the agreement of the management committee.”

No such permission was sought. The maximum penalty per the regulations is a forfeiture of all points from the games in which the ineligible player took part, and the reimbursement of their opponents in those games – the league has taken a discretionary approach.

Newton’s 80-point penalty for fielding Pakistani batter Rizwan Haider while registered as an amateur despite his having played professional cricket in the past four years is believed to have been calculated as 20 points per win with him in their side – the same formula appears to have been applied to Park.

The immediate beneficiaries are New Brighton. Adam Neal’s side were favourites to be relegated along with Newton ahead of their season closer against Orrell Red Triangle – they needed to win and hope Southport & Birkdale failed to beat Wigan.

Now it’s Park facing the drop. Even if they manage to beat last year’s champions Northern at Moor Park on Saturday, a win for Neal’s side would doom them.

That would mean two relegated sides who – in their first season since promotion – would have been comfortably mid-table but for administrative penalties. 

While in both cases the sanctions have been less severe than the draconian maximum, such a situation raises questions over whether the regulations could be tweaked in future to avoid clubs paying such a hefty price for honest mistakes by volunteers, who may not always be fully aware of the dense and complex regulations.

ECB PREMIER DIVISION

	P	W	D	L	Bat	Bowl	Pts
Wallasey	21	14	4	3	83	25	388
Ormskirk	21	13	3	5	55	36	351
Leigh	21	11	6	4	58	36	314
Northern	21	9	7	5	74	37	291
Wigan	21	7	7	7	47	57	243
Rainhill	21	6	9	6	53	45	218
Orrell Red Triangle	21	5	7	9	52	49	201
Formby	21	4	8	9	65	53	198
Southport & Birkdale	21	4	4	13	64	45	189
New Brighton	21	3	5	13	49	63	172
Birkenhead Park	21	8	6	7	37	46	163
Newton-le-Willows	21	7	4	10	37	47	144