Balgownie captain Jamie Fleming has slammed Wollongong after a protest caused the Twenty20 semi-finals to be delayed by a week.
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The protest, which was withdrawn on Wednesday, forced Cricket Illawarra to reschedule the semi-finals, with players now required to play both the semi-finals and final this Sunday.
Balgownie will face University in the first semi-final, with Helensburgh hosting Dapto in the second.
“It was embarrassing,” Fleming said. “Wollongong were looking to get our game against them overturned because we played too many second graders. It was just sour grapes, a massive waste of time.
”They weren’t good enough to beat us. In first grade, the best XI play. They weren’t good enough, they threw the toys out of the cot and tried to get in the back door. Tough luck to them.”
The protest dates to the match between Wollongong and Balgownie on the 10th of December. With second grade playing prior to first grade, clubs were allowed to use a maximum of three players in both games.
However, Balgownie used four players in both matches and were subsequently stripped of points from the second grade match.
“In reality it doesn’t affect your first grade team. If there were more second graders, if anything they had an advantage. The whole thing was based around the fact that they hadn't played well. They don’t deserve to play finals.
“They’ve spent a lot of money on players and haven’t performed and that’s why they tried to get in through the backdoor. It was a massive waste of time.”
Wollongong captain Dave Studholme was disappointed with the outcome, arguing the Balgownie first grade side should have been punished.
“I would have thought Balgownie would have copped the punishment,” Studholme said. “They broke the rules, we didn’t. I don’t see why we had to withdraw, it should have been the other way around.”
Balgownie’s match with University is a rematch of last year’s Twenty20 final and Fleming is expecting another tough match.
“They have a lot of experienced players, good attacking batsmen, they’ll look to put us under pressure,” Fleming said. “We’re missing a lot of players, so we’ll be under strength. But that doesn’t change the fact that we won the competition last year and we think we’re good enough to beat them.”
Helensburgh enter Sunday’s semi-final unbeaten and captain Mitch McCrae recognises his team will be under pressure to perform against Dapto.
“The last time we played they had a few out, so I think they will get a few back for the finals” McCrae said.
“They’ve got some pretty experienced players, so they’ll be hard to beat.”
“There’s always a bit of pressure if you've won all your games. We’ve just got to try and put it behind us and think about how we can win the semi first and hopefully we can move on to the final.”
The two winners will travel to North Dalton Park to contest the final. Play will commence at 3.20.