DDCA: Buckley Ridges has dropped its push for Supreme Court action
A DDCA power has made a final decision on whether it will launch legal action against the competition. Their president explains the reasoning.
Outer East
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Buckley Ridges has turned on its threat to involve the Supreme Court of Victoria in its points battle with the Dandenong District Cricket Association.
This masthead reported on Sunday the Bucks were considering taking further legal action after failed attempts to overturn the 12-point reduction handed down in November.
The Bucks appealed with the DDCA and then the Victorian Metropolitan Cricket Union.
The VMCU verdict was upheld in late January and the Bucks looked into taking it further.
Buckley Ridges president Sonny De Silva said the Bucks have since decided to drop its case for the “betterment of cricket”.
“We did not have any more appeal mechanisms left,” he said.
“The only recourse action we had was Supreme Court but for the betterment of cricket itself we have decided not to go down that avenue.”
At the time, the 12-point sanction crashed the Bucks from second to sixth.
A turn in form since Christmas has resulted in Buckley Ridges surging to second by only net run rate.
Winning its case would have changed this weekend’s semi-final with Springvale South from Alex Nelson Reserve to Park Oval.
De Silva says Buckley Ridges wants to move on and focus on winning its first Turf 1 title since 2019.
“That was a consideration, if we didn’t finish in the top four, then we might have taken it further because we strongly feel we are in the right,” he said.
“But it’s immaterial now and we are just happy to try and win it from where we are.
“We are focused, we feel like we have a better two-day team and that’s how we’ve recruited after the last two years’ defeats.
“We feel we have a strong chance in winning the silverware.”
DDCA president Hilary Wijeratne confirmed the Bucks had dropped its case on Monday.
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