JACK CARSON has been officially elected as the new president of the Arrow Huddersfield Central Cricket League.

He takes over from long-serving Adrian Whittaker, who has stepped down after 14 years in the role.

And Mr Carson’s first season in office will oversee several significant changes to League rules, the first of which allows any Central League club to sign one overseas player (ie: the holder of a non-EU passport) next season.

“We have had one or two queries raised over non-EU players in the past, so to clarify the situation, we have decided to allow every club to sign one if they so wish, under the condition that they are strictly amateur players,” explained Mr Carson.

“We want to stress the Central League is still run as an all-amateur League, and we will not tolerate players being paid.”

Another alteration involves the restriction of bowlers to a maximum of just 12 overs in a match.

The League have had a restriction on bowlers in Cup games for about four seasons, but 2008 will be the first time the limit has been extended to all League matches, while next season there will be home allocation for all Cup semi-finals, rather than matches going to neutral venues.

Meanwhile, another major rule change means that any team not having a scorer at any game will have to take a man off the field when their side is fielding to fulfil the scoring duties.

The new president is looking forward to his new role, with Almondbury Wesleyans’ treasurer Chris Jones having taken over his old post as League secretary.

“I see it more of a sideways move for me really. I was never seeking it, but said I would be happy to take it on if the League could find another secretary, which they have,” added Mr Carson.

“One of my major concerns looking ahead to the new season is the shortage of umpires.

“I know we are not alone in this, and we have managed to recruit about five or six for next year, but we could obviously do with a few more.

“We can guarantee providing all matches in the top three sections with two umpires each, but the bottom three sections will only be guaranteed one, although some may get two officials,” added Mr Carson.

“Any new umpires who would like to come onto the list can be geographically zoned, so if they wish to operate in a specific area it can be arranged so they can do.”