ACO NEWSLETTER - Ecb - England and Wales Cricket Board

senior most level, Oman Cricket has nineumpires who officiate in the 50 overs aside league tournament. For the other divisionsconsisting of seventy teams, theU16 and U19 tournaments for boys andthe growing women’s cricket, there are 45umpires who officiate in the matches thatare always played at weekends.Oman Cricket sees a bright future forits umpires both at the domestic level andas well as in the Asian regional level asmore umpires are now qualified withACC Level 2 accreditations. It is hopedthat these umpires would get good exposuresin officiating in the internationaltournaments and their experiences abroadwould improve the standard of umpiringin Oman.Out in the middle: practical part of the umpiring course‘The Follow On’In true cricketing form, we give you ‘The Follow On’. Although this feature doesn’t rely on a teamhaving a lead of 200 going into the second innings, we hope it will keep you informed and updated onpast events that are of interest to you.Page 12 of issue 14 hosted an article titled ‘Ground,Weather and Light’ and looked in to difficulties umpirescan have when opting to play or not play. With the horrendousconditions that met many parts of the UKthroughout the season, Mike Hill wrote to ECB ACO onthe topic with a response from Executive Officer (North)Glyn Pearson.During a normal summer, I would have wholeheartedly concurredwith the thrust of the article, but this was not a normal summer, andI and some other umpires frequently did not err on the side of cautionbut invoked Law 43.As an ex-player, I know how important Saturday and/or Sunday’smatches are to players, and the relentless rain was hugely demoralizingand depressing. Sometimes leagues called off entire anentire weekend’s cricket in advance, and sometimes no play waspossible another weekend, or very little after a match had started,such that on occasions a month would go by without any meaningfulcricket.So, when I turned up at one ground at 12.30 on a sunny day aftera very wet week to find a pump in the middle of a small lake, andplayers from both sides forking and mopping and baling, we got amatch going at about 3pm. The square was fine (covers) but thatpart of the outfield was boggy (and probably didn’t fully dry out allsummer) but we played, fielded gingerly in that area, and a closeand enjoyable game was had by all.Your article presumes there are always two umpires, but frequentlythere is only one. This is when the umpire is under mostpressure, especially if one team is winning and knows full well thata rival teamelsewhere is playing/winning/losing (mobile phones and scorers!).A captain can change his mind about suitability in the blink ofa bad or good over, and will let you know! When there is no colleagueto confer with, my consistent line is again to draw upon mytime as a player, recall that we are here to play cricket, and thissummer I erred in favour of playing.Next summer, when the sun beats down and the only danger isfrom heat-stroke, I will return to erring on the side of caution whenit rains.ECB ACO response:This is a very good point. The role of all officials is to facilitate agame of cricket between two teams. As Mike says, the playerslook forward to their matches all week, as umpires and scorers do,and the last thing they want is for some officious little dictator tointerfere. The final sentence og Law 42,(2) clearly lays down whenumpires can and cannot “interfere” with play and Law 42,(1) definesthe responsibility of the captains.The changes to Law 3,(8) in 2010 were designed to increase theamount of play and prevent captains using Ground Weather andLight as a tactical weapon. It is now solely for the umpires - orumpire if there is only one - to decide whether conditions are dangerousor unreasonable. The word “suitable” has been completelyremoved from the Law. In addition, Law 3,(9),(c) states that whenthe umpire(s) are considering the conditions they shall do so “unaccompaniedby any players or officials” specifically to prevent pressurebeing put on them. Umpires must be strong and make alldecisions, including those concerning ground weather and light,without fear or favour and play should only be prevented if theconditions of Law 3,(8),(b) or (c) apply.e-mail us at ecbaco@ecb.co.uk 15 contact us on 0121 446 2710