APAT announced the "top two" rule on 17 May, immediately received a lot of objections as people felt it would be top two from a very limited number of games and then said the same day that members" views would be taken into account. On 19 May they said that the rule was under review. Your claims about the rules being changed part-way through the season are misrepresenting the position and are unwarranted.
Carl, you have been banging on for ages about how you should be entitled to a place on the basis of a single (very good) result. I"m probably not the only who is tired of reading your posts on this, even before today. Just leave it up to the Captain.
It was my understanding that the top 2 rule was carried over from last years team selections.
John Murray, I have to read your banging on daily but don"t complain about you.!! You are not even part of the team involved but still get involved.
There was no such top 2 rule in previous years
Why bring it in and take it out then ?
Last year some people suggested it wasn"t right that the rankings weren"t taken into account when teams were chosen, rather than change the rules mid way through the season APAT kept it as it entirely being down to the captain"s prerogative.
They introduced it this year, and people pointed out that whereas last year the team championships were at the end of the season and so had some kind of "meaning" to them, this year the team championships were mid way through the season and so somebody could be high up in the rankings after having one really good result - and with nations with fewer representatives, someone could be one of the top 2 ranked people of that nation after having only one mediocre result.
So it would have worked last year when we didn"t have it, and doesn"t work this year when we did.
The APAT rankings are a prime piece of evidence for the National Captain"s to base their choices on, so it seems unlikely that current and previous years performances wouldn"t be taken into account. Rather than the rankings being specified as a selection criteria (as they will be used as such anyway) there might in future be some wording along the line of, past and present APAT National Champions will be the first players considered to represent their countries.
Considered - not automatically selected - so if you win an APAT national Championship you are likely to be included in your National team, but if you don"t do well you"re not necessarily going to be picked again. This way APAT performance will be a key criteria, but without binding National Captains to decisions which they might not think are in the best interest of their Country"s Team.
