ECB ACO Newsletter - Spring 2013

Who’s The Umpire – Progress is made withthe provision of an ECB ACO National LicenceOver the last two summers, appointments website WhosTheUmpire.com (known as “WTU”) hasbeen employed by ECB ACO, County ACOs and Leagues, to manage the recruitment, developmentand appointment of Umpires and Scorers to cricket throughout England and Wales.ECB ACO Board are delighted to announce,with ECB’s support, that we have committeda significant sum to acquire a national licencedue to the importance it attaches to a comprehensive,secure, open and transparent vehiclefor the management of cricket officials,which is available to all ECB ACO members.The Board’s target is to have all appointmentsfor its members managed by WTUwithin the next three years.Roger Knight, ECB ACO Chairman, expressedhis delight at the agreement saying“This is a real breakthrough for the ACO andthe umpiring community in the UK. We lookforward to welcoming more County ACO sand more Leagues on board with WTU toreap the benefits of a system that is extremelyuser friendly. The Board has set avery ambitious target, but I am confident thatit can be reached if we can get the messageout that this will save users so much time andmoney.”What is WTU?WTU is a secure, online database that givesadministrators of cricket officials easy access,where authorised, to all the informationthey require to successfully appoint and managetheir officials and games.Tell me more…Wiltshire ACO were the first users in 2010,quickly followed by Bristol & WesternCounties ACU&S. West of England PremierLeague appointer Les Clemenson also usedWTU to manage appointments throughoutthe four areas that make up WEPL.In 2011, ECB ACO reviewed WTU atLord’s and decided to trial the website atboth national and regional levels, also includingmultiple other ACOs to investigate howthe database would cope with multi-organisationscenarios.WTU particularly proved its benefits inmanaging cross-border appointments andalso formalising the collection of feedbackforms from teams, umpires and observerswhich are now securely entered online.Following positive feedback from users ofthe system, other ACOs and leagues wereencouraged to adopt WhosTheUmpire.comin 2012 (see Ed.11, page 20) to help easethe administrative burden of appointers andmanagers.The increased usage throughout 2012had been watched closely by ECB ACO toappreciate how ACOs and leagues havebenefitted from using WTU. ECB ACOwere satisfied that all ACOs and leaguesthroughout the country would greatly benefitfrom its use. Therefore, throughout thewinter ECB ACO, in conjunction with ECB,actively negotiated a three-year nationwidelicence with officialsforsport.com and aredelighted to report that an agreement wasreached. The three-year licence took effectfrom 1 st January 2013.This means that every group (ACO orleague) in England and Wales can nowmake use of the service via ECB ACO’scentral licence.What does this mean for me,the Umpire/Scorer?If your ACO/league uses WTU, thenthroughout the season all your appointmentsinformation will be held in one easily accessibleplace. You will be able to provide andupdate your availability throughout the seasonensuring that you will only be appointedto games for which you are available. Youwill also be able to see, in the interest of fairnessand transparency, who is appointed toany fixture.WTU will send you an email or text (dependingon your preference) to notify you ofyour appointment to a match. This messageallows you to either accept or decline the appointmentwith a single click. The informationreceived will include directions fromyour home address to the match venue andwill allow you to view the others involvedwith your fixture (e.g. colleagues, assessors)with contact information. If your ACO/league takes advantage of the option for onlinereporting, then all your reports will alsobe available for you to view online.Basically, WTU provides a central, easyto-useand secure online system for recordingall your appointments and reports.It is important to note that WTU does notmake appointments or manage officials. It isa tool that makes this job easier for yourappointers!How do I use it?WTU is entirely internetbased so canbe accessed frompcs; laptops andsmart phones.Therefore you canlook at the informationfrom whereveryou are, 24 hours a day, 7 daysa week.If an official does not haveaccess to email or mobilephones, then WTU uses a“buddy” system whereby acolleague/ friend/relation canreceive the information on your behalf.How will ECB ACO supportthose inexperienced users?The vast majority of umpires will only be requiredto do three things on WTU.Firstly to log on, which requires you to set upyour own password. Secondly, to keep an updatedcalendar so your appointers knowwhen you’re available. Finally, you will needto accept or decline your appointments.We have made these processes very simple tofollow and there are detailed user-guides thatwalk through the process step by step. Thesecan be found on both ECB ACO (www.ecb.co.uk/ecbaco) and WTU (www.whostheumpire.com/ecb)websites.For anyone who is unable to get through theprocess we will provide telephone support,but in the first instance please contact yourCounty Appointments Officer.Are my personal detailssecure?Details of all ECB ACO members havebeen loaded onto WhosTheUmpire.comcomplete with your current grades. Allusers have complete control over theamount of personal data that is available forothers to view.WhosTheUmpire.com is registered in accordancewith the Data Protection Act andall data is stored within the UK at secureand professional hosting facilities. Thee-mail us at ecbaco@ecb.co.uk 8 contact us on 0121 446 2710