Oh, that's just great...

Not content with their shambolic collapse in the 50 over stuff, Yorks now appear ready to be thrown out of the 20/20 stuff for selecting an illegal immigrant:


http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/countycricket2008/content/current/story/360267.html

Although this article appears to have been written by a 12 year old.

Although his cricinfo profile says he went to school in Barnsley. So not having a UK passport would be easily explained - no-one has a passport in Barnsley, most are unaware of life beyond these shores. They think a foreign country is somewhere exotic like Derbyshire or Lincolnshire with those new fangled non-steam powered motor vehicles.

What a farking joke on several levels.

There were people going into the riverside an hour before the start and both sets of players were warming up.

ECB are a joke

The problem seems to be two-fold:

- He's not registered as a first-class player whatsoever
- Even if he was, he'd have to register as an overseas player and would therefore be refused on the basis that Rana is already Yorkshire's overseas player

Pretty farcical by the numpties at Yorkshire. Pretty much what you'd expect from a bunch of unintelligent inbreds . Hopefully, Yorkshire are chucked out and Glamorgan take their place. I don't want Nottinghamshire to be back in this tainted piece-o'-rubbish competition when we've just recovered the knack of playing real cricket again (and winning).

He's been living here for 7 years... WTF doesn't he have a passport?

Fat lot of use he did us - 2-0-18-0, and didn't need to bat as the piss-weak Notts team only scored 136.

Surely you'd think when he signs an academy contract he'd have to show a birth certificate or passport or something though...

Apparently this lad captained England U15's FFS...

Yorkshire should just be replaced by Notts imo, even though you don't like it Augustus

Augustus wrote:The problem seems to be two-fold:

- He's not registered as a first-class player whatsoever
- Even if he was, he'd have to register as an overseas player and would therefore be refused on the basis that Rana is already Yorkshire's overseas player

Pretty farcical by the numpties at Yorkshire. Pretty much what you'd expect from a bunch of unintelligent inbreds . Hopefully, Yorkshire are chucked out and Glamorgan take their place. I don't want Nottinghamshire to be back in this tainted piece-o'-rubbish competition when we've just recovered the knack of playing real cricket again (and winning).

He's been living here for 7 years. And captained the England U-15s. He has to be qualified.

lmao @ Nasser.

No Nas, he's not illegible he is ineligible

JKLever wrote:lmao @ Nasser.

No Nas, he's not illegible he is ineligible

Chavs, eh!

So if he's been captain of the England U15's then he's been cleared by the ECB to play as an English national. We're just abiding by their decision....

Typical ECB, apparently this matter was reported a day after the Notts match, so they wait for about 3 weeks doing precisely nothing and then a few minutes before the match was going to start they call it off.

If they'd just waited an extra 3 hours, for Durham to beat Yorkshire, then this whole thing would have blown over.

I reckon another county has dobbed them in...

However, two hours before their match today against Durham at Chester-le-Street, the ECB called it off when it transpired that Rafiq, who came to Pakistan about seven years ago, was not registered to play first-class cricket.

yorkshire in Pakistan?

That's why I said the article appeared to have been written by a 12 year old. Also initially they managed to spell his name differently in every paragraph.

Seems like there was a precedent when Kadeer Ali shouldn't have played for Worcs.

Looks like a replay of Notts/Yorks then...

JKLever wrote:Seems like there was a precedent when Kadeer Ali shouldn't have played for Worcs.

Looks like a replay of Notts/Yorks then...

It was Kabir.

And it could be a good sign for Notts. Glos went on to win the trophy that year.

Complete and utter farce.

No, correction ....

Complete, utter and absolute farce.

"ECB shits on its highly esteemed customers" shock.

I'm no fan of the ECB ... highly critical of them at times ... BUT ...

"Someone" (?) makes a complaint earlier today to them about Azeem Rafiq's ineligibility.
They are therfore compelled to investigate.
They find anomalies.
Too late, the Yorks team are already at Chester-le-Street.

What can they do??

Question is : Who is that someone? Notts? Glamorgan? Pakistan?

The lad has a Pakistani passport and was not registered by Yorks as a player with the ECB.
yet he played in the T20 against Notts!
If he had been registered, irrespective of him captaining England U-15's, his registration would have been as an overseas player.
Which would have meant Rana being shown the door.
Or Rafiq himself ... but, errr... he played!!.

The ECB are many things evil most times - but IMO on this occasion blame lies entirely with Yorkshire and/or the person/county/country that shopped them.

Ponder that one!

Play the match.

Decide afterwards if to throw Yorks out.

That would be utterly non-sensical, knowing that Yorks will probably have to be thrown out if their registration was, as is expected by Moxon, irregular - albeit unknowingly!

How can you play a match, then throw one side out then ponder the repercussions if either Notts or Glams come gunning for the ECB - as would be their right!
Would Durham then have to play a second match?
Or what if Yorks had won tonight?!

It is farcical I agree ... but ... it's the rock or a hard place scenario!

Merlin wrote:I'm no fan of the ECB ... highly critical of them at times ... BUT ...

"Someone" (?) makes a complaint earlier today to them about Azeem Rafiq's ineligibility.
They are therfore compelled to investigate.
They find anomalies.
Too late, the Yorks team are already at Chester-le-Street.

What can they do??

Question is : Who is that someone? Notts? Glamorgan? Pakistan?

The lad has a Pakistani passport and was not registered by Yorks as a player with the ECB.
yet he played in the T20 against Notts!
If he had been registered, irrespective of him captaining England U-15's, his registration would have been as an overseas player.
Which would have meant Rana being shown the door.
Or Rafiq himself ... but, errr... he played!!.

The ECB are many things evil most times - but IMO on this occasion blame lies entirely with Yorkshire and/or the person/county/country that shopped them.

Ponder that one!

"A point of confusion, if not concern, is the delay in the ECB's handling of the matter. Moxon implied that the board knew of the situation 24 hours after their match against Nottinghamshire but David Collier, the ECB's chief executive, insisted that the affair only came to their attention early this morning."


Knowing what the ECB are like i'd be implied to believe Moxon...

Merlin wrote:That would be utterly non-sensical, knowing that Yorks will probably have to be thrown out if their registration was, as is expected by Moxon, irregular - albeit unknowingly!

How can you play a match, then throw one side out then ponder the repercussions if either Notts or Glams come gunning for the ECB - as would be their right!
Would Durham then have to play a second match?
Or what if Yorks had won tonight?!

It is farcical I agree ... but ... it's the rock or a hard place scenario!

Would have been better to play the game - if Durham had won (likely!) then its not an issue.

Its not as if Notts deserve to go through. It wasn't Rafiq's 0-18 off 2 overs that skittled Notts out for 135...

And what about all the fans who turned up for the game?

Tough call Gazz ... and yeah ... who to believe?
But I guess dems is da rules.

Breach of registration is a Serious issue.

Yorks making the ECB aware of the situation within 24 hours after the Notts game (which they won) ?!
Hmmmm ... don't quite buy that one somehow ... that would've been inviting immediate disqualification if it were the case.

Anyhow ... I agree, bad vibes for the fans who turned up

Merlin wrote:Tough call Gazz ... and yeah ... who to believe?
But I guess dems is da rules.

Breach of registration is a Serious issue.

Yorks making the ECB aware of the situation within 24 hours after the Notts game (which they won) ?!
Hmmmm ... don't quite buy that one somehow ... that would've been inviting immediate disqualification if it were the case.

Anyhow ... I agree, bad vibes for the fans who turned up

Yeah, my football team used to keep the registration of a player who stopped playing a few years ago. So when we had to call in a ringer they could always play as A.N. Other. He always made several appearances a season - in several different guises.

The ECB are so inefficient that if Rafiq had played as G. Hamilton or R. Stemp they probably wouldn't have noticed the difference...

Doesn't really look good for either Yorks or ECB really.

Especially if it turns out their U15 captain was illegally in the country...