Officials need to deal with bad behaviour

Wairarapa cricket officials need to be pro-active in stamping out the behavioural problems which have surfaced in their senior men's inter-club competitions this season.
The citing by experienced umpire Chris Cogdale of an Academy player for alleged misconduct in his team's ill-tempered Bidwell Cup clash with Wairarapa College at Rathkeale last weekend should be the catalyst for administrators to take the bull by the horns.
For if they don't there is the very real danger of the current rash of ill-discipline spilling over into something much more serious.
They should be requesting all umpires to follow the Cogdale lead so as to ensure that teams, or individual players, who offend are reminded of their obligations in a way which will encourage them not to offend again. And if it takes suspensions or hefty fines to make that happen then so be it.
Sledging always has been, and always will be, a part of cricket. Invariably though it is done in good humour and in such a way that little harm would ever come of it.
From all accounts, however, some of the rubbish being vocalised in senior club games in Wairarapa this season has been way outside the norm with relationships between teams being strained to almost breaking point. The time has arrived then for officialdom to step in and publicly lay down a few hard and fast rules regarding the type of behaviour which won't be tolerated on the club scene & or at any other level for that matter.
They should be requesting all umpires to follow the Cogdale lead so as to ensure that teams, or individual players, who offend are reminded of their obligations in a way which will encourage them not to offend again. And if it takes suspensions or hefty fines to make that happen then so be it.
Meanwhile, the early leaders in the Bidwell Cup competition, Red Star and Lansdowne, will be looking to consolidate their positions when second round matches get under way tomorrow.
Red Star are up against Wairarapa College at Wairarapa College in what should be a closely-contested encounter. The students have been something of a revelation this season with a series of strong performances in Umpire's Cup limited-over games preceding their equally strong showing against unbeaten Academy in their opening Bidwell Cup match last weekend. The big plus for the college side is that they have not relied solely on the all-round abilities of their "import", Wairarapa skipper Sam Curtis, for their competitive edge. Robbie Anderson, for instance, already has a century to his name and while Daniel Ingham has yet to reach the three figures on the club scene he did so for the Wairarapa under-15s in a rep match against Horowhenua-Kapiti last weekend. And in medium pacer Richard Irons they have a consistent wicket taker. Red Star has had their plusses too, none more so than the acquisition of Brad Edwards, who has earned rave reports for his batting skills near the top of the order and who is an accomplished spin bowler as well. They would have delighted too to see Jared Watt back to his best bowling form last weekend as he is a player with enough venom speed-wise to be a handful for any opposition when things are going according to plan.
Lansdowne bounced back from some pretty ordinary Umpires Cup form to secure outright points against Rathkeale College last weekend, thanks in the main to a batting effort which saw them rack up more than 300 runs in their first innings.
It will be harder work for their batsmen this weekend though as they will face a Greytown attack spearheaded by the likely new ball bowlers for the Wairarapa senior reps this season, Seth Rance and Hayden Spierling. How the likes of in-form players like Brock Price and Robin James cope with that challenge will have a big part to play in the end result.
No doubt there has been considerable soul searching done in the Greytown batting ranks since their two pitiful displays in that sphere against Red Star which produced little more than 100 runs in total. They are capable of much, much better than that and you can wager some strong words have been said at training this week with the idea of having them in a more disciplined frame of mind on this occasion.
Academy will be hot favourites to take maximum points from their Bidwell Cup match with Rathkeale College at Rathkeale College which is, of course, the home of both sides. The excellent form shown by Academy in all forms of cricket has been the highlight of the club season to date. Led by players such as century makers Fran Sennemore and Dan Stevenson, they have had more depth to their batting than any other side and while a lack of quicker bowlers is still evident that has largely been overcome by the consistent form in that area of Steve Coleman. And, of course, when it comes to spinners they have a plethora of players to pick from.
For Rathkeale College this season was always likely to be a testing one with so many of their key players from last season unavailable but they can take heart from the solid contribution already made by promising talent such as Dean van Deventer, Jamie Holmes and Matthew Stringfellow, all of whom seem assured of bright futures in the game.