Making village cricket tea? You'll need a criminal check
By Richard Savill
The start of the cricket season has traditionally involved the simple pleasures
of whitening boots, oiling bats and preparing wickets.
This year, however, club cricketers, umpires, scorers, groundsmen and tea ladies
are being subjected to vetting procedures in the interests of child protection.
The English Cricket Board has told them they must undergo either criminal
records checks or fill in and submit self-declaration forms. Clubs must also
have trained welfare officers.
Clubs have been issued with a warning that courts could hold them liable if a
young player is abused and it is found that they failed to comply with the
procedures.
"It's bunkum really, but it has to be done if we want to keep going," said Peter
Davis, 74, who has been a player, volunteer coach and umpire for Gerrans Cricket
Club on the Roseland peninsula in Cornwall for almost 60 years.
He said: "I now put on a white coat and go out to umpire on Saturdays so that
our players can concentrate on playing. That means I must undergo a criminal
records check or stop umpiring."
His wife, Margaret, the club secretary, who has been a tea lady for 50 years,
has to sign a self-declaration form and indicate whether she has ever been
convicted of any criminal offences, accepted any police reprimands, warnings or
cautions or is known to Cornwall social services department as a potential risk
to children.
She said: "This is just too much bureaucracy for little village clubs. We have
never had any problems."
The crackdown is believed to have been initiated after investigations into
people connected to the sport. One case involved a Berkshire club where a member
allegedly indecently assaulted a boy and the child's parents sued the club.
No one at the English Cricket Board was available to comment.
At Lynton and Lynmouth Cricket Club in north Devon, officials said that, while
some checks were necessary, the overall process had been "poorly thought out".
"Criminal Records Bureau checks for coaches and youth managers are absolutely
essential," the club secretary, Nick Constable, said.
"However, the cricket board seems intent on drowning the amateur game in
paperwork.
"Like most small clubs we do not have dedicated umpires for most games and
players fill in for 10 overs each while waiting to bat. In theory, it means all
30 of our senior players will need to be CRB-checked, just in case."
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