Insurance for Cricket clubs are you covered?

by

Colin J. Mico

For most cricket clubs, Insurance is a matter of minor importance somewhere down the to do list after servicing the mower and ordering the supplies of loam!

Just another task for the secretary, Treasurer or Chairman to fit into his already overcrowded agenda .unfortunately whereas this approach may have worked well for the last 40 years, the increasingly litigious nature of our society has given the subject of insurance far greater importance, both for clubs, and the associations that govern and administer our premier Summer sport.

But what do we need and what will it cost? is the usual cry from club officials, and probably with good reason given that the guidance being given to them by the administrators can be described at best as full of mixed signals.

In simple terms, the insurances that clubs need are those as set out in the table attached to this article; given the diversity of clubs (from infrequent wandering teams playing 10 games on Sundays to Premier League clubs running 7 weekly senior teams and coaching 200 juniors) it should be no great surprise that the insurance needs are equally varied and to some degree complex.

The cover as described in the table as essential goes beyond the insurance standards as currently set by the ECB under their existing scheme and used as a benchmark by County Development Officers when assessing the progress of clubs in achieving the Club Mark standard. This is simply because we feel that Clubs need to have professional indemnity and Directors & Officer liability cover in place to ensure that they are properly insured to avoid potentially crippling financial liabilities arising out of an incident at their ground.

Ok, but what is it going to cost us is the collective cry why do we need additional cover when we are already compliant with ECB Insurance standards?

Well, the truth is that running a cricket club in the modern World is much the same as running a small business the only difference is that if anything there is more red tape involved with running a cricket club! I know! I am combining my duties of running insurance brokers PCM Risk Solutions with my role as Chairman of Surrey Championship Focus club Maori Oxshott C.C.

Using the analogy of running a small business, the only compulsory insurances that a business needs is Employers liability and motor third party liability, but it would be a poor business that bought only the compulsory covers and left the other assets & liabilities unprotected!

The professional indemnity policy will cover the club for financial liabilities arising out of bodily injury to participants (be they club members or visiting players) arising out of decisions taken by captains, coaches and club or player umpires.

Insurance for Cricket Clubs who needs to insure what?

Type of Insurance What does it cover?Own Ground?Lease ground?

(if lease makes you responsible for damage to premises, then as per Own Ground, if not then as below) Wandering team?

PropertyDamage to premises + contentsYesNoNo

Third party LiabilityLoss or damage to third party property

Bodily injury to spectators

YesYesYes

Professional IndemnityLiability for bodily injury to participants / club members arising out of decisions taken by captains, coaches and club / player umpires

YesYesYes

Directors & Officers

Liability of the officers of the club arising during the performance of their duty (as members of the Committee)

YesYesYes

Personal AccidentDeath & / or bodily injury to players & / or umpires & / or scorers including medical and dental costs

OptionalOptionalOptional

With fewer panel umpires being available in League Cricket, and more responsibility being placed on the shoulders of club umpires (who may or may not be trained to the standards set by the Association of Cricket Umpires and Scorers), incidents of injury to players caused by early resumptions following rain are on the increase, and the umpires are strictly liable for these should the player(s) be able to prove that the umpires were negligent in their decision to resume.

Those that are members of the ACU&S would have such liabilities covered under the Association scheme, but unqualified club & / or player umpires would not unless the cover has been purchased by their club.

Obviously should the injured player have the benefit of a good staff sick pay scheme, then an incident is unlikely to develop into a problem however a broken ankle for a self-employed roofer, or even serious injury to a public service employee (whose sick pay scheme regards sports injury for non-company teams as self-inflicted wounds and as such are not covered) could represent a serious liability to the club should the injured party decide to sue for his (or her) loss of wages.

Similarly, should a player be injured as a result of the captain placing him close to the bat without full protective equipment, or as a result of persistent short pitched bowling which goes unchecked by the umpire, the club could be looking at a decent sized bill for medical treatment in addition to the loss of wages.

Most clubs will not have had to deal with these issues in the past and may feel that having bought Public liability cover then they are safe. The problem is that the public liability cover is for injury caused to third parties (opponents or spectators who are not members of the club) not for those incidents involving club members, and most public liability policies exclude claims arising as a result of the decisions of captains, coaches and officials.

So what else then?

Another cover that clubs need but tend as yet not to buy is Directors & Officers Liability; with the extra responsibilities put on club officials as a result of the greater duty of care towards junior members by way of the Safe Hands in Sport etc. club officials are now exposed to Personal Liability and even Criminal charges should an incident occur at their club as a result of incomplete Criminal Record Bureau checks on umpires, scorers and coaches for junior matches.

This means that Chairman of clubs would have to incur huge personal legal bills without support from the club unless there is a Directors & Officers policy in place.

Even standard insurance covers, with which most officials are familiar, may need special care and attention

?When considering personal accident cover for players first decide whether or not buying it would be a positive thing for players most cricketers would appreciate having financial support for medical bills and loss of wages should they suffer a serious injury playing cricket that prevents them from working (in my experience at least one player a year has had such a problem in our club). More than that who do you need to cover? Just the 1st XI? Just the League teams? Everyone including the juniors? If a compulsive scheme is put in place would the players we willing to pay an extra 5 each on top of their subscriptions to have the security of this cover in place? When looking at the amount payable in the event of permanent total disability, make sure that the operable clause means that the amount will be paid out if the injured party is prevented from pursuing his usual occupation rather than one that only pays out in the event that the injured party is unable to fulfill any occupation.

?When buying property cover consider carefully the minimum security requirements of the policy if you have a claim and have not adhered to them it is likely that your claim will be rejected. Consider also the construction of the premises and make sure that insurers are aware of any non-standard construction old wooden pavilions being torched by bored youths as soon as the clocks go back is a reality rather than an urban myth, and insurers may well not pay out if they have been told that it is brick built!

As can be seen from this, the forces driving the need for insurance are evolving in line with increased accountability for clubs and the people that run them , and the changing nature of the Society in which we live.

We know that both the County boards and the ECB are keen to ensure that all clubs have adequate, appropriate and cost effective cover to ensure that the financial liabilities arising out of an incident at an affiliated club, stay with that club.

But what happens if there is an extreme incident?

There have been a number of incidents where motor accidents have been caused by a ball being hit for six and landing on a passing car. We know that a judge and his wife her injured in 2004 in exactly this fashion and the club concerned only escaped severe claims for loss of earnings because the judge was a big cricket fan.

Imagine what would happen if the ball had hit a coach load of International lawyers attending one of the plethora of Law conferences that proliferate in Country Houses even if the club had bought the maximum cover under existing schemes ( 5,000,000) this is likely to be exhausted by the loss of earnings claims from 40 injured lawyers who charge their clients 250 or more per hour.

If claimants were unable to recover from the insurances (and assets of the club), they would then move up the line to the League who had organized the fixture and exhaust their liability cover (and other financial assets) before moving on to the County, and then ultimately the ECB.

40 lawyers claiming an average of 250,000 each for medical costs & loss of earnings would equal a claim of 10,000,000, of which only half would be covered by the clubs and the rest would have to come from other bodies responsible for the organization of the match.

This may sound extreme but how many clubs are there with grounds just off a main trunk road, or even a busy minor road? It doesn t appear to be a big stretch of the imagination to arrive at a six hit from the latest Woodworm bat resulting in a major road traffic accident.

Perhaps the claimants would pursue the bat manufacturer as well on the basis that their hi-tech equipment allowed the batsmen to hit the ball out of the ground certainly that would be their view if as a skilled purveyor of flight and guile they had seen their carefully flighted off spinners dispatched to all parts of the county by hulking brutes with cut-down railway sleepers in their hands!

England s superb performance in the Ashes contest has already given the sport a major boost and hopefully all clubs will spend the Autumn and Winter months signing up new & returning members with gusto however irrespective on the increased level of subscriptions taken, if we as the officials that run the clubs do not properly protect the club, its members and the other assets, this opportunity for regeneration may end in disaster and infamy as clubs become unable to deal with their financial exposures.

By Colin J Mico

PCM Risk Solutions

http:www.pcmrisksolutions.com

Article Source:

ArticleRich.com