Lightcliffe skipper Paul Ramsden wants overseas players banned from Division Two of the Bradford Cricket League.

He feels there would be better matches in the division if clubs spent more money on equipment instead.

At a captains' meeting at Pudsey Congs, Ramsden said: "We had a match this season against Bowling Old Lane where we bowled them out for 47 and we were bowled out for 46 because the roller had been broken for ten weeks.

"If clubs didn't have to pay overseas players then maybe they could afford to get their equipment mended and give everybody a decent game of cricket."

Only one player in the match made double figures - Wajid Hussain for Bowling Old Lane, who scored 14 - and the contest only lasted 53 overs in total.

Lightcliffe are one of only two clubs in Division Two who have not had an overseas player this season - Brighouse are the other.

However, Saltaire skipper Ijaz Khan, whose side have Pakistani Irfan Fazil as their overseas player, said: "If you took the overseas players out of Division Two you would have a very poor division.

"And overseas players can have a very positive affect on a club. Take Lidget Green when I was captain there. We were in the doldrums in 1999 and we signed an unknown batsman called Hassan Adnan.

"He did superbly for us, and the other players in the team raised their game because of him and we won promotion to Division One.

"And the following season we signed Naveed Rana ul-Hassan. People used to turn up to watch him bowl fast, and now he is playing for Essex Seconds against Yorkshire Seconds at Pudsey Congs and Yorkshire's chairmen of selectors has talked about him playing as their second overseas player."

Khan added: "Anyway who is to say that clubs would spend money on improving their equipment if they didn't have an overseas player?

"That money might have come from a private sponsor anyway, and clubs could only then ask him to back the club as a whole rather than an overseas player."

Clubs either afford overseas players through private sponsorship or from their own funds.

Khan said: "The majority of clubs will raise the money from bar revenue or by fund-raising events such as raffles, race nights or curry nights, which we have a couple of times a year.

"A certain proportion of a club's bar profits will be earmarked for an overseas budget.

"But if a club doesn't have its own bar or it isn't a major money-maker then they are more reliant on local patrons or other fund-raising events."