CTPL: Administrative error forces finals shake up

The club booted from the CTPL finals has hit out at league officials describing their “anger” and “sadness” in a powerful statement after an appeal was denied.

The CTPL has been forced to apologise for a horror finals mix up.

Greater Northern Raiders have hit out at Cricket Tasmania Premier League officials after being booted from the finals.

The Raiders were removed from this weekend’s finals series after the competition found an “administrative error” in the ladder at the end of the home-and-away season.

The league had given the Raiders, who believed they earned a place in the top-four, an extra bonus point worth 0.6 after officials awarded the Launceston club an extra three wickets in a two-day game in January.

After the mistake was discovered, the finals fixture will now see North Hobart take on Kingborough and Clarence host University as the four clubs aim for a place in next week’s grand final.

“We have gone through many emotions over the (last) couple of days, anger, frustration, disappointment and sadness,” the club said in a statement.
“We were made aware on Tuesday night that there was an Administration error from the Cricket Tasmania Premier League that awarded the wrong number of points to a game in January. Due to the update of ladder, we have missed out of finals.

“Heading into the last round teams throughout the competition we aware of where they were situated and played accordingly. We as a team strategised to come up with a game plan to achieve the required number of points to finish in the top 4.

“If we had known of the discrepancy of points, we would have changed our game plan to achieve maximum points.

“We appealed several items, and these have been denied, whilst we haven’t understood the entire process that’s taken place unfortunately there is nothing left to do. This is not how any teams season should finish.

“We are extremely proud of what we have achieved this season and the turnaround we have had since Christmas.”

EARLIER

Tasmanian cricket’s biggest local competition has been forced to apologise after a horror blunder made in determining the final ladder at the end of the home-and-away season.

Cricket Tasmania Premier League officials announced on Wednesday afternoon that an “administrative error” was made following the conclusion of the men’s first grade season at the weekend.

The league had given the Greater Northern Raiders, who believed they earned a place in the top-four, an extra bonus point worth 0.6 after officials awarded the Launceston club an extra three wickets in a two-day game in January.

It has now left the league scrambling to work out the fixture for the semi-finals this weekend with all games now being revised.

“We understand the importance of ladders being correct, particularly in a season where seven teams could have made the finals going into the final round of matches, and the implications for the Greater Northern Raiders,” competition manager Sean Stevenson said.

“We believe we had done our due diligence regarding the final bonus points total, but regrettably an error has been found.

“As the manager of the competition I take responsibility for that and apologise to all impacted.

“We are re-examining all results to confirm the final ladder positions ahead of this weekend.”

It is the second error competition officials have made in as many seasons after wrongly awarding Mitch Owen the Emerson Rodwell Medal at the end of the season.

At the time, the league said an “administrative oversight” missed the fact Owen was ineligible for the award due to a code of behaviour breach.

While the talented all-rounder received a suspended two match sentence for the incident, and therefore did not miss any matches, the by-law states specifically that a guilty outcome is grounds for ineligibility for any CTPL Player of the Year award.

North Hobart pair Jack White and Yousaf Iqbal were eventually declared joint winners.

Greater Northern Raiders were contacted for comment.