ACO NEWSLETTER - Ecb - England and Wales Cricket Board

e-mail us at ecbaco@ecb.co.uk 3 contact us on 0121 446 2710Editors PicksBeyond the BoundaryNow that the close season is here, we will get our ACO annual grading in due coursewhich might cause us to grunt at the season’s marks from captains –that is if ourLeague is enlightened enough to let us see them! It might also cause us to lookback and decide whether or not we had a good season – or more importantly whatwe can do to improve, because believe me, we can all improve!PAGE 8-9: Awards and Recognitione-mail us at ecbaco@ecb.co.uk 9 contact us on 0121 446 2710WINNERLorraine ElgarLo raine has been a club umpire and scorersince the 1970s. She umpires on the Kentpanel and ha served as local, county and regionalchair of the ACO, inspiring and enthusingmany to achieve their potential,helping o ficials to be recognised at a levels.She has umpired a the highest level in thewomen’s game and passes on her experiencewithout hesitation. She gives back to thegame at every opportunity, being heavily involvedin disability and Visua ly Impairedcricket, selflessly helping, advising andmentoring beyond the ca l of duty. She is themost successful female umpire in Kent andindeed perhaps the country, but is firs too fer to help when a game needs o ficials,continuing to o ficiate at al levels of thegame both indoor and out.Her dedication to training over the yearshas helped clubs in the Swale area recruitmuch needed o ficials, with on-going mentoring.There are few clubs in Swale thathave not benefi ted from Lo raine’s commitmento o ficiating.She has been rated as an exce lent umpireat a levels of the game, and her continuedintegrity and enthusiasm in a changing gamehelps her gain the respect of those who meether.“I wa so overwhelmed to win theNatWest OSCA for O ficiating; it wa suchan honour. The other two finalists for thisaward, Deborah Burns and Alan Englishwere just as deserving as me and I wouldlike to think that we were a l winners.“Most of us do not enter into o ficiating togain recognition and there are so few umpiresand scorers that are recognized. Iwould like to share this award with a l ofyou who also give of your time, energy andski ls as o ficials, commi tee members, mentors,tutors, assessors and representatives ofour Association who do not coun the hours,the travel and the e forts that you dedicate.“It was especia ly poignan to see two femalefinalists, together having given over 70years to o ficiating, advocating the enjoymentthat women can also get from a maledominatedgame.“The Latin word ‘volunteer’ origina ly refered to volunteers for the Roman army. Weneed to grow our own army of volunteers.There is a climate of respec towards whathas already been put in place, and there is adesire to make more room for the young.When I was 7 years old I started an interestin o ficiating that I never dreamed wouldlas this long. Cricket has enriched my life -wonderful friendships have formed, trust hasbeen built, and laughter shared. I would encourageyou all to convey your passion forcricke to the young in order to inspire themto become o ficials and share in our love forthe game.“I could not have contributed so much tocricket withou the support and encouragemento families and friends and I’m sure INatWest OSCAsThe NatWest OSCA for Services to O ficiating was awarded to Lo raine Elgar of Kent for her achievements and hard workboth on and o f the field. Alan English, Buckinghamshire, and Deborah Burns, Middlesex, were runners up. Congratulations toa l for continuing to represent umpires and scorers in the best possible light.gramme officia ly began,Chris has played a hugepart in its development,starting out as one of thefirst four young o ficials.Chris has helped tospread the word of ECBACO and in particularthe young o ficials,which has generated greater interest in theprogramme. From 2009 to now, Chris’ developmenthas continued on an upward path, andhe now officiates regularly in the West ofEngland Premier League.But it is for his work with the young o ficials– especia ly this year – that Chris deservesthe award. He has regularly gonebeyond the call of duty, often making himselfavailable a the last minute to fi l an emptyplace - most notably at Oakham and Bedford -and this wi lingness makes him a valuableasse to ECB ACO.At Bedford he acted as the Liaison O ficerfor all of the young o ficials, organising wherethey would be umpiring during the week-longtournament. Chris also managed to speak toSimon Taufel and a ranged a special sessionfor the young o ficials at Lord’s, where theAustralian spoke for an hour to 15 of those inthe young o ficials squads.Wi liam Morrison – Behind the ScenesWi liam first started scoring for WickfordCricket Club in 1961 and completed 50 yearsof continuous scoringin 2011. He scores onboth Saturday andSunday for Wickford1st XI, and is consideredone of the bestscorers in the ShepherdNeame Essex League.In addition, he becamethe Club Treasurer in 1977 and has been inthat role ever since.He is an active member of the bar committeeand makes a substantial contribution to theday to day running of the Club. Wi lie also attendsthe ECCB county indoor finals yearafter year, scoring for a l the sides participating;this is always on a voluntary basis.He is also on the ECCB Association ofCricket O ficials commi tee, and is the trainingo ficer for scorers throughou the county.He has recruited, trained and mentored manynew scorers, and is an integral part of thecommittee.Derek Shuttleworth – LifetimeAchieverDerek commenced umpiring in the BradfordLeague in 1964 when he gave up playing. Hecontinued to umpire in the League for 45years until his health prevented him fromstanding for long periods. Derek stood in over1000 games in the Bradford Cricket League.A the age of 80 he became a club scorer inthe league and then mastered the TCS scoringsystem which a l scorersin the league haveto use. He is sti l an activescorer in season2012. Derek was responsiblefor se ting upthe West YorkshireBranch of ACU around1970, a branch ofwhich he was Chairman for many, manyyears.He has been an umpire tutor for about 40years and served ACU&S as Regional TrainingO ficer for the North East Region andChairman of the ACU Training Commi tee.He is also a qualified Scorer Tutor. Derek wasChairman of the Bradford Cricket LeagueUmpires Association for over 20 years and isnow the Association’s President. A schoolteacherby profession, he put a l his educationski ls into delivering his courses. His methodof teaching was thorough and would alwayswork a the pace of the slowest candidate. Hewould tutor anywhere in our large county andhas also been known to go across to Lancashireto deliver both umpire and scorercourses. I cannot begin to guess the numberof candidates he has tutored over the yearsbut I am certain that a very high percentagewi l have passed their exams and Derek’sknowledge and professionalism wi l havehelped these recruits put into practice on thefield what Derek has taugh them in theclassroom.e-mail us at ecbaco@ecb.co.uk 13 contact us on 0121 446 2710I believe this is a fairly easy Law to“fix”. The non-striker should be a lowed toleave his ground to back up, with nopenalty to the ba ting side until either thebatsman has played the ball, or attempted toplay it. This is then similar to the actions ofthe wicketkeeper - where the ‘keeper cannotake the ba l in front of the stumps if thebatsman hasn’ touched the ball. The samerisks apply to the non-striker as now, so ifhe is out of his ground when the ball is deflectedonto the stumps o f a member of thefielding side, he is out run out. Alternatively,if the striker elects no to run - or ifhe does! - there i still the potential for arun out a the non-striker’s end.However this simple reworking of theLaw would reduce the workload of the nonstriker’sumpire; at present, the umpire ischecking for no-balls, is the non-striker inhis ground, was the bowler in his deliverystride, is the batsman out? Instead, the umpirecan check the no-ba l, then immediatelyturn to the business end, where theimportant mechanics ma ter!Peter Woodman, Devon, wrote:Having read the Beyond the Boundarypiece in Edition 14, I found the conclusionboth i logically and unreasonably bias infavour of the batsman. There is nothing“fair” or “within the Spirit” for a nonstrikerto gain an unfair (in practice, “unreasonable”)advantage by advancing (orrepeatedly advancing) down the pitch beforea delivery is bowled. There is both alaw and a line – literally – why draw a different,moral, one? The “Spirit”, to mymind, is on the batsman to observe the law.The “put” should not even be on thebowler to remind the batsman, though, inpractice, most if not all, wi l give the “caution”first. The breach of either the law orthe warning wi l always be by the batsman,so why castigate the fielding side. If we areto penalise “one short”, for example, oftenby the very finest of margins, why shouldwe allow a batsman a yard or more advantageat the start of a potential run? What isa stumping, in essence, bu the same thingat the other end? A balanced view, surely,should not conclude bowler “abuse” andKartik, his captain and “Athers” have a lgot it spot on!Derek Rees, Wales, said:I am the Instructor and Chairman of theLlanelli Branch of ECB ACO and I have justread the above article and am, quite frankly,astounded that it suggests that the runningout of the non-striker who is trying to gainan unfair advantage is somehow unfair andagainst the “Spirit of the Game”Law 42.15 is quite specific. It permits thebowler to a temp to run ou the non-strikerbefore the bowler enters his delivery strudewhere the non-striker is a tempting to gainan advantage by starting to run early.If we, as umpires choose to ignore thisfac then I ask myself,where do wedraw the line. Dowe choose to ignorethe other penaltiesunder Law 42?I accep that, inthe “Spirit of theGame”, we as umpireswi l ask thecaptain if he wantsthe appeal to stand.This is traditionaland it is normal for abowler to warn thenon-striker on thefirst occu rence.But, if the captainrefuses then that isit, the non-strikermust be given outand the game continues.To suggest thatthis action is unfaircannot be acceptableunder the Laws. It isquite clear that it isnot a “grey” are buta clearly laid downrequiremen tha thenon-striker shouldbe a tempting togain an unfair advantage.ECB ACO were pleasedto receive John Holder’s thoughts and printthem below. We fully endorse his views.Murali Kartik following his ‘mankading’ of Alex Barrow a theend of the county seasonJohn Holder wrote:It is pure nonsense to accuse a bowler for unsporting behaviour when he runs out anon-striker who has left his ground early, especially when that batsman has previouslybeen warned for this act. The sole reason for a non-striker leaving his ground early isto increase his chances of ge ting to the other end as quickly as possible, thereby gainingan unfair advantage.Before the law was changed, abowler could get into his delivery strideand instead of releasing the ba l, stop,wai ti l the non-striker has left hisground and break the wicket. That wastota ly unsporting and could be regardedas bringing the game into disrepute. Thepowers that be rightly changed the lawso tha the runout could only be a fectedwhile the bowler was running up to thewicket. Once the bowler had reachedhis delivery stride he could not run thenon-striker out.For a non-striker to leave his groundwhile the bowler is running up is blatantcheating, doubly so when he has beenwarned previously. Gareth Batty wasco rect in upholding the appeal in thematch against Somerset and for Su reyto be accused of unsporting behaviour ispure hypocrisy. Only when non-strikerswho transgress are given out wi l thisact of cheating stop.Perhaps the biggest block to an unbiasedself-assessment is the belief that the commentsof captains bear little relation to thefacts of the appropriate afternoon! Whichbrings to memory the words of Steve Davisduring the Elite Umpires Q&A at Lord’s acouple of years ago…‘people will alwaystell you that you were wrong. If you were,examine it, then forget it, and move on.’OK, so let us spend a few minutes onthat first. Part of the job is to rememberwhat we each did (and didn’t do) but thiscannot be isolated from watching others -and especially those officiating televisedmatches - and making comparisons. Afterall, most of us do fancy that we could beout there working with any of the Elites in,for example, the current T20 ChampionsLeague don’t we?Strangely though, one key point not to beoverlooked is that, basically, they haveheaps more authority but fewer tasks thanmost colleagues on league panels – so it isinteresting to compare some of these differencesas you run down the list and answerto yourself…Did you always arrive an hour in advanceof the scheduled start time?Did you ever warm-up with a runaround the boundary?Were you always there in the middleat the toss?Did you speak to the captains about‘Spirit of Cricket’ and their responsibilities?What did you leave behind in thedressing-room more than once?That is, apart from ‘my sanity’ and ‘gsoh’!Did you always call ‘Play’ and ‘Time’at each interval?How many times did you call a ‘percentage’no-ball?Did you give any ‘percentage’ lbwappeals?Why did you not cross over regularlyfor the left-right batting combination?How many times did you answer thebowler’s query after saying ‘Not-Out’?How many times did you not observethe completion of the first runat the bowler’s end?How many times did you look toyour colleague each over?After; every ball, 4 th ball, 5 th ball, never?At the fall of a wicket, did you alwaystalk with your colleague – checkthe score and number of balls to come?How do you ‘check’ the score if you do notkeep it?After an appeal to you, did you everwalk to your colleague to discuss it?Can you tell from your match-card,which over was bowled at eachhour?Did you regularly advise captains ifthey were on time or late?This applies in non-league too as teamsmust understand that as they improve, somust their timings.How many ‘incidents’ did youchoose not to take further or report?Remember, this is not a public confessionbut just a personal hard-line judgement onyou to yourself; if you baulked at one thatyou shouldn’t have, now is the time to besure that you were right (and it did notmerit sanctions) or you were nervously hesitant– in which case, analyse the incidentagain, and re-judge your action – and learnfrom either decision.Overall, were you content with thecaptains you were dealing with?In your judgement for this season,was discipline worse or better?Did you enjoy your season?No matter on your answers to the otherquestions, this is the vital one. It is sometimesreported that umpires are giving upbecause they no longer enjoy being outthere amidst the arguments, noise, and lackof respect – or, if these do not occur, theever increasing possibility that they might.So those who continue need to be convincedthat they do indeed enjoy playingsuch a key role.than restrict itself to taking a reactive view toany incidents that occur. It is a real disappointmenttherefore that one of the initiativesin this area that directly concerns us - the aimto increase the number of ethnic minorities inthe membership of ECB ACO – has been farfrom successful.This is a sensitive area, but we have somegreat role models, in both the professionaland recreational game (John Holder andMansoor Qureshi to name but two) and theissue was raised and positively discussedwith colleagues from Pakistan and Sri Lankaduring the talks held with the ICC officials inthe summer. Nevertheless the truth is that ourfine words and aspirations have not beenmatched by any significant change in pragmaticterms so, along with a similar wish toraise the number and profile of our womenofficials, this will be a top priority in 2013and beyond. Your thoughts on any aspects ofthis issue would be much appreciated.One of my personal pet hates is the onsetof Christmas in November –but given thesignificant issue we are having with the post,despite this issue coming out a little earlierthis year, it will probably not reach you untilDecember – so as that is within the season ofgoodwill, I end by sending you all my verybest wishes for a Happy Christmas and asplendid 2013.continued from page 2e-mail us at ecbaco@ecb.co.uk 8 contact us on 0121 446 2710Awards and RecognitionHonorary Life Memberships are awarded by the ECB ACO Board to those nominated from the MembershipServices Commi tee. The Board was delighted to approve the nominations of Keith Sutherland (Durham) and DavidHeap (Lancashire) to join the existing list of Honorary Life Members.Below are the individual submissions that were approved by the Board. Congratulations to Keith and David.Bob McLeod – League Panels andAssociationsBob was one of thefounder members ofthe Su rey ChampionshipUmpiresPanel and is nowserving his 26th seasonon the Panel. Hehas always been regardedby playersand clubs alike asone of the top recreational umpires in Su rey.From 2001 to 2008 he served as Chairmanof the Panel and was responsible for the creationof a transparent list system, a lowing thebest umpires to develop and rise through thesystem, and the author of the Blue Book – aninvaluable umpire’s guide to navigating theChampionship’s playing conditions. ThePanel now uses Bob’s considerable mentoringtalents with those umpires considered to havethe most promise to stand in the top levels ofclub cricket.He is also a Boundary Assessor, and inthese roles is able to inspire and develop umpiresof the panel. For many yearshe organised the panel of umpires to standin Su rey CCC 2nd XI matches. Outside Surrey,he has been the Chairman of the ClubCricket Conference’s Umpires and ScorersCommi tee for some years and in that role heused his considerable organising ski ls to greate fect. You wi l not meet a nicer man. He hasbeen a model for promising o ficials in Su reyand beyond – both as an umpire and a man.Chris Fortune – Young O ficials AwardSince 2009, when the young o ficials pro-Keith SutherlandKeith has fi led many positions for both the ACU&S and ECB ACO sincejoining the former in 1987 when he started his umpiring career. He was aMinor County and Second XI umpire before he had to retire because of backproblems in 2000 but this did not stop his work for the ACU&S and ACOwhich continues to this day.Keith was secretary of the ACU&S Durham Branch and also secretary ofthe Durham Association of Umpires and Scorers and at present he i secretaryof the Durham ACO – a position he has held since its formation.At a regional and nationa level he has held many posts. He was the firstrepresentative of the North Region on the ACO Board and at present he isNorth Regional Secretary.As we l as fi ling these various other posts, Keith has run courses inDurham for many years. There is no-one in our organisation more deserving of the honour of Honorary Life Membership than Keith.David HeapWhen you look at some men there is a saying, find a busy man and givehim some more. That is David – a workaholic. He never stops up in theNorth.David began playing junior cricket at Li tle Lever before moving on toplay senior cricket in 1965 at Kearsley CC in the Bolton League, where heremained until 1972, becoming a very good left arm bowler. After one yearat St Andrews (1973) in the Bolton Association, he returned to the BoltonLeague to play for Westhoughton CC until 1983.He then took up the ca l of the men in the white coat and began umpiringin 1984, becoming a fu l member of the ACU in 1989. He became an instructorin 2001 and has run many courses throughout the Bolton and Manchesterarea. He became the North West Training O ficer taking over from IanBishop in 2007, where he helped many instructors on their courses, assessing and o fering advice. He became the Education O ficer for theLCB ACO in 2009 and his expertise in that field has been invaluable to the LCB ACO, a tending many national meetings of Education O ficersas we l as training courses in tutoring, assessing and scoring, organising courses not only for umpiring at a levels, but helping thecounty Scoring O ficer with her courses too. He has been dedicated to the role and it is with regret he steps down this year but wi l continueto tutor courses loca ly.There is no-one more dedicated than him to the cause and it has been pleasure to have worked with him. A truly great person.Shepherd-Frindall Award WinnersThe winners of the Shepherd-Frinda l awards are determined by the ECB ACO Board fo lowing the review of the nominations ineach category. This year the nominations were particularly strong and the fo lowing four were chosen as the 2012 winners.Congratulations to the nominees and winners.Ed: It’s easy to congratulate the winners, but we would also like to thank those who nominated someone for this year’sShepherd-Frinda l awards. Maybe it’s you who should be nominated next year…e-mail us at ecbaco@ecb.co.uk 12 contact us on 0121 446 2710Laws – queriesDonald A lan, Sussex, wrote:I read with respect your we l balanced articleon “Mankading” in the ACO Newsle terno 14, discussing the bowle running outthe non-striker.Why does law 42.15 exist at a l? Itseems tha the law explicitly always comeswithin the compass of “any action whichseems to abuse the spirit”, and so it cannotever apply. Someone has gone to the botherof describing exactly the situation in theLaw apparently in contravention of “thespirit”.The laws are terse and we l considered,but I think the very existence of this law isthe cause of a l the controversy as umpiresare directed no to apply it. I happen tothink tha the batsman is “sneaking a run”and should be out. Otherwise why notapply a simila relief to the striker too? Butlet’s have an unambiguou situation - Scrapthe law and I’ l be happy.Wi l Law 42.15 be scrapped once andfor a l? If not, why not?Ian Springer, Dorset, wrote:I found the article Beyond the Boundary inissue14 both interesting and a li tle annoying.I agree with a l the comments regardingthe Spirit of Cricket, but I cannotunderstand why this must only apply to thebowler. If the various commentators care totake a look beyond Law 42.15 to jus thenext point i.e. Law 42.16 “BATSMANSTEALING A RUN” which clearly statesthat “It is unfair for the batsman to a temptto steal a run during the bowlers run up”they might note that it is the actions of thebatsman that are unlawful and agains theSpirit of Cricket. It even says that if thebowler does not a temp to run out eitherbatsman then the umpire should take actiona soon as the batsmen cross in their attempto steal a run. It goes on to state thatthe fielding team be awarded 5 penalty runsand the incident reported. Surely it shouldbe argued that Kartik was being more thanfair to the batsman who obviously was notbeing fair. The Law say he is being unfair.If as the article states Kartik warned thebatsman of what he intended then surely theumpire should have been aware of the batsman’sunfair, and therefore unlawful, actions.This warning sounds entirely withinthe Spirit of Cricke though, as is often thecase, it is not required by the Laws. It couldbe argued tha the umpire was at fault here.I would sugges that a thi stage it wouldserve a l to point ou to the batsman that ifhe leaves his ground and does not keep atleast his bat grounded behind the poppingcrease then he wi l be seen to be trying tosteal a run and tha this is unfair and thereforeunlawful. It might further help to remindthe batsman what actions he, as theumpire, is required, by Law, to take if hesees further incidents.I admi that I am only a lowly Level 1umpire with only 5 years’ experiencewithin my sma l sphere of umpiring for thelocal Evening League and Dorset SundayLeague, but I have seen several cases ofthi sort of play by batsmen who know thatin tight running situations the ba l is mostlikely to be thrown to the wicketkeeper thusmaking them most at risk of being run out.Kartik, being an ex-Somerset player, wasprobably aware of the ba ting tactics of hisopponents and if these were within theSpirit of Cricket or the Laws of the game.Most see the Laws of Cricket giving thebenefi to the batsmen, maybe this is onearea that leans a li tle in the bowlers favour,and maybe they should be encouraged,rather than being admonished, in using it.And as a final comment, I should pointou that I am also a Somerset C.C.C. supporter,so wish my views to be seen as asupporter of the game of Cricket in generalrather than as a partisan.David Pie rie, Lancashire, wrote:Thank you for the interesting Beyond theBoundary article re the Mankading run-outissue (Issue 14) I though the article waswe l balanced, and it a lowed me to thinkabou the situation. The article showed howimportant it is to consider aspects of theLaws outside of a match environment,when emotion has ebbed away. I think whatis key, is tha the Laws are not fixed, butare a work in progress, with the Rule Bookshowing the lates thinking.In the Mankading scenario, I fu ly agreewith the article’s thinking that it’s importantto keep the Spirit of Cricket in mind. Iwould therefore sugges that we, as umpires,look a this issue and come up with adefinitive answer.If we look a the role of the non-striker,it has become custom and practice for him(or her) to back up a few paces as thebowle runs in. Do we as umpires, in factdoes anyone in the game - including thenon-striker - consider this action to be“stealing a run” or is it simply part of thegame? The Laws themselves leave it up tothe umpire to decide if this i so, even makingthe distinction of the striker being allowedto stand we l out of his ground toreceive the ba l, an action that is NOT consideredstealing a run! For a run to be completed,i takes BOTH batsmen to maketheir ground a the opposite ends, so the actionsof both batsman must be equated intothe Law.The ‘Mankading’incident involvingMurali Kartik dismissingSomerset’s AlexBarrow towards theend of the countyseason was raised inthe previous ‘Beyondthe Boundary’ (page11, Edition 14). Wehave receivednumerous responsesand thoughts on thetopic. We’ve included aselection below. Makading – Sehwag talks to umpires fo lowing the mankading incident which marred their game withSri Lanka earlier this yearPAGE12-13: Laws queriesLooking back to the lastissue, the highlighted‘naughtiness’ of the bowlershredding the ‘Spirit ofCricket’ definition because ofattempting to run-out the nonstriker,generally met with a ‘Hold-on, youhave the wrong target’ response. Themajority view was indeed that the bowlerwas using the law to react properly to theattempted mis-deed of the non-striker.Similarly echoed was the view that either theLaw be reworded or removed, or the ‘SoC’text be adjusted so that it is clearlyunderstood to be in addition to the Laws andnot a way of interpreting them.