To the Two Counties Cricket Championship Committee and Fellow Clubs
It is with great sorrow that we report that Ipswich Cricket Club find themselves in the position of not being able to fulfil our commitment to provide three teams in the league for the coming season. As you may know we have been grateful to use the opportunity in the past to use loan players to enable us to ‘Get the Game On’, and wish to thank both the committee and fellow clubs for that. The problem we face now is that most of our front-line batsmen and bowlers from the last full season are no longer available to the club or have indicated very irregular availability. Of the players who have indicated their availability for the coming season, only a couple could play first team at the standard required on a weekly basis, as a result the majority of the side would be drawn from our second or third teams, resulting in a knock-on effect to those sides. If players were forced to play at an inappropriate standard, as well as being a source of concern about their welfare there would be a possibility that we could lose these players to cricket altogether.
We have therefore asked the MSC to withdraw our side from Division Two, but continue to provide sides to Divisions Five and Eight. They have agreed to this request
We would like to apologise to the league and also to the other sides in Division Two who will now have a vacant week. It is not a position we want to be in but believe it is a better solution for cricket as a whole.
Dougie Fairbanks
Chairman
Ipswich Cricket Club