Selection Policy – South Winchester Cricket Club

To promote fairness, consistency and transparency of selection decisions
To assist players to understand the Club’s Selection Policy and selection decisions
To ensure the needs and aspirations of Club are realised within each team

The selection committee will consist of the Club Captain, First XI Captain, 2^nd XI Captain and Third XI Manager for all IHCC teams.

Selection for Saturday adult teams will be on the basis of:-

Player availability
Balance of required skills within each team
Club objectives for the season
To field the strongest team available for the First XI and Second XI apart from exceptional circumstances where club objectives may dictate otherwise.

The First XI Skipper picks the preferred First XI team in the first instance. Those First XI players not selected will be automatically made available for selection by the Second XI Skipper.
The Second XI Skipper then picks a team from those remaining players available to play – those players not selected will automatically be made available for selection by the Third XI Skipper.
The Third XI Skipper finally picks a team from those remaining players available to play.

To ensure the smooth running of the selection process, the following are deemed to be guiding principles:-

Wherever possible, players should notify their availability as early as possible by replying in good time to any email/Whatsapp requesting it
The Club will seek availability of players in advance via email/Whatsapp on a regular basis
Skippers should check with all players on a Saturday following a match their availability for the following week
Selection Committee meetings should take place as early as possible
In the Third XI, the Club will aim to play as many capable colts as possible. (Colts are deemed to be those aged 18 years and under)
The Club will use “Teamer” or a similar system to notify players of selection
All players need to take responsibility to respond to Teamer/other invitations in good time
Selection should be issued on Teamer/other system by no later than Tuesday for the following Saturday
If any player has not accepted an invitation on Teamer by close of play (5pm) on Thursday, that player will be dropped and the Skipper will issue an invite to an alternative player
If a player has to pull out of a match at short notice, the Skipper of that team will chose a player from the next team to “pull up” and the resultant vacancy will be back-filled by the Skipper of the team that the player is pulled up from and so forth.
All team sheets will be issued no later than a Thursday evening via email to the distribution list.

Selection for Tuesday Midweek team will be on the basis of:

Player availability
Balance of required skills for the team
Club objectives for the season
Captains views on players available for selection in relation to benefiting Saturday teams. e.g. poor form or a player returning from injury requiring practice.
To select the strongest possible side available for cup matches and to select players based on the above for all league matches.

The Skipper will seek availability of players via email/WhatsApp wherever possible
The selection committee will meet/discuss selection via WhatsApp as early as possible
Invitations to play will be issued via teamer by a Thursday evening.
Midweek team sheet will be issued no later than a Sunday evening

Where a player is not selected for a Saturday HCL match, they will be given the opportunity to play in a Sunday friendly fixture
We will attempt as a Club to allow Colts to gain their first experience of adult cricket through playing Sunday friendly matches

For standard league matches, we will attempt to field players according to their availability, aiming to ensure all players have access to matches during the season
Where we have more than one team at a particular age group selection for the A and B team will be made on ability.
We will aim at all times to ensure a balance of skills (batting, bowling and fielding) and may therefore field a “core team” for the majority of matches with remaining players selected on rotation
Selection decisions remain the responsibility of the Head Coach of the age group concerned,
For Cup/Plate matches or league-deciding matches, we will aim to field the strongest team available – this may involve calling stronger, more experienced players up from younger age groups
We will attempt as a Club to arrange friendly matches to ensure there is adequate access to matches for all players

Reviewed and amended 2020