Rosaneri Cricket Club have received complaints about dangerous and childish behaviour during net practice. Foolishness descended on the Wednesday night net as a spate of Bouncers were bowled, causing unnecessary injury, alarm and distress to the batsmen.

This kind of behaviour may seem funny at the time, but the long term implications MUST be considered. If you stop and think about the concept of a Bouncer, you are basically hurling a hard object as fast as you can to hurt one of your mates ! Clearly, in the cold light of day this is unacceptable to the ethics of the club.

One club player is today nursing bruised ribs, but luckily the injury is not a major one on this occasion. People may get carried away with the banter, and we also realise that some players were being egged on by others who should know better.

Just imagine if someone was hit in the face. That would mean a late night trip to casualty and probably the next day off work. Even if we ignore the danger, the Bouncer has no place in terms of practice at all. It is not something we would encourage our bowlers to use for the sake of sportsmanship, and also from a batting perspective it is pointless for practicing shots.

In future weeks, players WILL be fined or sent home if they continue this dangerous activity. An accidental short ball is always likely, but the deliberate Bouncer will not be tolerated.