Despicable them

Cresselly were right. Carew’s decision to declare with the score on 18-1 in the final game of the season was at odds with their title of champions of the county, but setting up a disciplinary committee to investigate the match is an unnecessary inconvenience and expense.
Pembroke County Cricket has to be seen to do something of course but what they can actually do about it remains to be seen.
Reports online (and there’s been plenty of them) suggest the county club could expel Carew for what they did, fine them up to £500 or reprimand them but neither will reverse the decision made on a day that promised so much yet delivered so little so the question has to be asked; just what is the point?
It’s been claimed Carew deliberately lost the match and the result will suggest they did but there was no guarantee that Cresselly would have passed the total even though they needed just 19 to win.
As unlikely as it would have been given Cresselly’s superior batting, they could have suffered a collapse and Carew’s decision (as peculiar as it was) would have been justified.
Carew might be ‘standing together’ on the decision but given all the negativity surrounding it, it would be a surprised if no-one from the club regretted what was done.
They may have been missing a couple of important players on the day but there was still enough class in the team to give Cresselly a challenge and with home advantage and 21 points in credit they would have started the game as favourites.
On what grounds then could Carew be penalised? No players were injured, no officials were abused, no decisions were queried and the reputation of the County Club hasn’t been stained by a rogue comment in the media.
Technically, no rules have been broken either.
While it will be difficult to bring Carew to task over what was done it will be a surprise if the rules regarding declarations are not changed for next season and no doubt this will be discussed at the end of season meeting planned for Wednesday, September 13th at Haverfordwest Cricket Club.
That said, the only way change can come in is dependant on clubs voting for it in next February’s AGM.
It would be a shame if it didn’t.

The declaration took away from what was an exciting final day of the season and that can’t be allowed to happen again.

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