Answers Offered For Rep Outrage

Newcastle Herald

Friday December 3, 2004

Craig Kerry - Up the Valley

MUSWELLBROOK District Cricket Association secretary Darren Easterbrook has put the absence of Aberdeen players in the area's representative side down to communication problems and a lack of organisers.

The Herald received an anonymous email this week asking why the ladder leaders, who have "convincingly beaten all the other teams" and contain "quite a few standout players" have had only one member worthy of selection.

Glen Hamilton, who has starred regularly for Aberdeen, played in one of Muswellbrook's two games so far this season. He was unavailable for their second game, a Country Cup match against Hamilton-Wickham, which they lost.

The emailer wrote that no Aberdeen players, except for Hamilton, were called when organisers were "looking to scrape a team together" the night before Muswellbrook's first outing, a John Bull Shield match against Newcastle City and Suburban.

The email said it was "to the disgust of [Aberdeen] players" when they saw who had been selected.

It went on to state that two B-grade players received late call-ups, without anybody from Aberdeen being asked first.

In the loss to Newcastle C&S, the team's bus driver, a B-grade player, filled in.

Easterbrook said the situation came from not having many contact phone numbers for Aberdeen players and the lack of people helping to keep the representative scene alive.

Muswellbrook's next match is a John Bull Shield clash on Sunday week against Dungog.

Aberdeen lead the competition on 20 points after eight rounds.

© 2004 Newcastle Herald

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