As per previous seasons, clubs had been lining up TCL, Cricket North-West and Cricket Tasmania Premier League players to cover increased unavailabilities over the New Year period.

But a new rule introduced in November means Northern-associated Greater Northern Raiders players will be the only means of increased squad depth this weekend.

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"We've reminded all our clubs that there's a rule in place that states they can't have other association or CTPL players coming to play in their T20 comp," Cricket North administrator David Fry said.

"That's always been allowed, but it was a decision made by the cricket committee that we were going to change that rule.

"We were getting a couple of premier league players coming up to play matches when they had byes down South and we just thought it was a little bit unfair when the other team didn't have the opportunity to find someone as well.

"If everyone had access to a Tigers player for a weekend we wouldn't have an issue - that's happened in the past, but I can't see it happening again."

Fry said the ruling may get reviewed at the end of the season.

"There's been some feedback since that rule came in and it may be that the clubs decide that's what they want to do, but at the moment that's the rule."

Last year's T20 cup saw the inclusion of North-Wester Rhys French (Launceston), CTPL's Trent Keep (Riverside), and TCL players Jona Watts, Dilan Jayalath, Sameera Vishwaranga and Sagar Chhetri (all Mowbray).

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