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A HOST of former Bendigo District Cricket Association players returned to the field at the weekend - as umpires.
With the Bendigo District Cricket Umpires Association on strike for the weekend's Saturday-Sunday round 11, it left clubs needing to fill the voids across the BDCA's first, second, third XI and under-18 games.
Across the first XI, four of the five games had two replacement umpires step in, while Paul Abbott - a former co-ordinator of the BDCUA - did the Strathfieldsaye-White Hills game on his own with the batting team supplying the square leg.
Other umpiring positions filled across first XI games were:
Huntly-North Epsom v Bendigo - Mark Ryan and Paul Wicks;
Eaglehawk v Bendigo United - Dennis McCormick and David Rosaia;
Kangaroo Flat v Strathdale-Maristians - Tony Ryan and Des Gilmore; and
Golden Square v Sandhurst - Geoff Connelly and Graham Christie.
The BDCUA confirmed its strike action late on Friday afternoon, with the association demanding amendments to four BDCA rules.
The crux of the BDCUA amendments are:
* To rescind the rule that permits a "captain to query an umpire's interpretation of the rules during or after play" to "no decision is to be questioned by anyone as per the spirit of cricket";
* All penalties handed down by the tribunal adhere to the penalties outlined in the BDCA match review panel matrix; ie: if a player is found guilty of a level two offence by a tribunal the level two penalty should apply, rather than a reprimand being handed out; and
* The BDCUA having the right to appeal a finding or penalty, which it currently does not.
The BDCUA notified the BDCA of its demands by email at 9.35pm Wednesday night and set a deadline of 5pm Friday for them to be met or strike action would be taken.
With the timeframe not deemed sufficient by the BDCA board to allow for proper consultation with its clubs to amend rules, it left the two parties at a stalemate and what's believed to be the first umpire strike in BDCA history.
The next step will be a meeting on Monday night with the BDCA board, clubs and BDCUA president Larry Wust.
Wust said he hoped the issue would be resolved on Monday night.
"We've asked for four rules to be changed and from our end, nothing has altered... that's what we're still asking," Wust said on Saturday.
"Hopefully, it's resolved on Monday night."
Asked if there would be another strike next week if there was no resolution on Monday night, Wust answered: "I'm not going to stick my neck out on that one, but we've got a scheduled meeting next Wednesday night, so we'll go back to our members and then go through the process again I suppose and see what they want to do.
"We wanted to umpire today. On Friday morning we went to the BDCA and asked from that email we sent on Wednesday to include the word interim.
"By including the word interim we would have hoped it would have negated the need to have a special meeting before Friday to give us cover to be able to umpire this weekend.
"There has been a lot of twoing and throwing, so what we've done is draw a line in the sand and brought it to everyone's attention by withdrawing our services, so that's where it lies until Monday night."
In confirming the strike action on Friday, BDCUA co-ordinator Peter Williams indicated the association was frustrated at a "number of instances in recent years where level two offences have occurred and players have been found guilty, but let off with reprimands and no penalty.
"That doesn't support us as umpires to manage and report player behaviour because they are not getting penalties."
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