THE England and Wales Cricket Board has rejected registration applications for five players to play county cricket in England in 2008.
All of the players concerned have taken part in, or are scheduled to take part in, the Indian Cricket League (ICL) which is classed as an unsanctioned event by the board.
New Zealand fast bowler Shane Bond was recently subject to similar action b
y the New Zealand Cricket Board who refused to grant him registration to play for Hampshire.
Players involved in the Indian Premier League, the officially recognised Twenty20 competition, will not suffer the same sanctions.
The statement said: "The England and Wales Cricket Board has received applications for the registration of Wavell Hinds (Derbyshire), Johannes van der Wath (Northamptonshire), Andrew Hall (Northamptonshire), Hamish Marshall (Gloucestershire) and Justin Kemp (Kent). These applications for registration have been rejected by the ECB."
The ECB went on record with its stance on the issue last month and explained that unqualified cricketers who required a 'No Objection' certificate to be registered for cricket in England and Wales were unlikely to receive such a certificate if they participated in unauthorised events.
The ECB added that cricketers who are already registered with the ECB, and who have already been contracted with an unauthorised event, would not have any action taken against them.
Northants have been hit hardest by the rejection and will miss South African all-rounders Hall, who is set to appear for ICL team Chandigarh Lions, and Van der Wath, who is in the Mumbai Champs squad.
Derbyshire chief executive Tom Sears confirmed that the county did not intend to appeal the decision but hinted that Hinds, who is set to appear in the ICL for the Ahmedabad Rockets, may take the matter further.
"We are obviously very disappointed that Wavell will be unable to join us this season," Sears said.
"While we support the ECB's stance on unsanctioned events we can fully understand why Wavell has accepted the Indian Cricket League offer.
"Now we have a definitive decision we can turn our attention to securing a replacement and we can assure our members and supporters that we have the resources to compete for the very best players that are available.
"John Morris has worked very hard on identifying players we would like to bring in and we hope to make some positive progress in the near future.
"It is a very competitive market at the moment with a number of counties being affected by the ICL issue, but we have been actively looking at options for a while now in anticipation of this ruling and have the finances in place to attract the best players looking to play county cricket."
The full article contains 459 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
