Association of Cricket Officials Issue 27 | Page 2
Pressing On
People of a certain age (like me) will always have clear memories of 50 years
ago – 1966.
It was the year that England won the World Cup at Wembley,
the year of the Aberfan disaster in South Wales, and
electrification of the West Coast mainline. The Beatles were in
full swing and Yorkshire won the County Championship,
Warwickshire the Gillette Cup, and, with Gary Sobers in his
pomp, West Indies won the Test series 3–1. Could we have
predicted then how much the world would have changed to
where it is now? Indeed, it was only a decade ago that a
blackberry was a mere summer fruit, green was just a colour
not a political movement, cameras used film, and tweet was
something that birds did.
Given the pace of change it is difficult to see how the future
will evolve. Certainly, if you have watched the film Inferno, you
may wonder whether an exponentially increasing world
population will allow us to live at all: or perhaps you are
someone who thinks that climate change will see the death of
the planet well before 2050. In this context, wondering how
society will spend its leisure time is perhaps irrelevant – or is
it? It certainly should not be to those of us who love cricket
and want to see our children and our children’s children enjoy
the game as we have. The difference between talking about
potential disaster scenarios and talking about cricket is that in
respect of cricket we can influence and effect the change that
is necessary to protect that legacy – that is if we are prepared
to accept the clear messages being given to us by those
playing the game today and, more importantly, those not
playing and those who could be.
This is especially true with young players. We already know
that only one in 50 children aged 7–15 rate cricket as their
favourite sport, and three out of five children didn’t mention
cricket when asked to name 10 sports. Given all of this, it is
unsurprising that 35% of players aged 14–19 in 2015 did not
return in 2016.
You will know that ECB’s Participation and Growth team has
recently restructured and the newly created management
team has initiated plans to reverse these trends. The ECB ACO
Board has recommended that we align ourselves more closely
with our parent governing body, not least so that we can play
a full part in ensuring that the necessary changes are brought
about. Previous issues of the magazine and Over and Outs
have provided detail of ECB’s plans to ‘unleash cricket’. You
can also read elsewhere about the specific changes to ECB
ACO’s constitution. These will enable us to give and receive
full support to and from ECB, which the Board believes will be
mutually beneficial to both parties.
I commend these changes in the constitution to you, and urge
you to vote in favour.
Perhaps one of the issues that has brought us to where
we are is that of increased on-field indiscipline and the
growing problem of ‘football-style abuse and dissent toward
grass-roots cricket umpires’ as was reported on the front
page of the Sunday Telegraph recently and further explored
TEAM SHEET
ECB ACO Board
ACO Board Subcommittees
Or, email [email protected]
Vacant – Chairman
Vacant – Deputy Chairman
Sid Poole – London and East
Vacant – Midlands
Philip Radcliffe – North
Les Clemenson – South and West
Steve Davies – Wales
Ed Shuttleworth – ICC Europe
Nick Cousins – Head of ECB ACO
Gordon Hollins – ECB Chief
Operating Officer
Chris Kelly – ECB Umpires’ Manager
Mark Williams – MCC Laws of
Cricket Advisor
Education
Scorers
Performance and Development
Appointments and Grading
The trustees cannot guarantee to
meet every request, but each will be
given due consideration.
ECB ACO Executive
Nick Cousins – Head of ECB ACO
Ben Francis – Finance and Project
Manager
Vacant – Executive Administrator
Glyn Pearson – Education Manager
John Overton – Project Officer
Martin Gentle – Membership
Services Manager
Karen Cassidy – Membership
Services Officer
Phone – 0121 446 2710
Email – [email protected]
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Addresses
ECB Membership Services Office
Warwickshire CC Ground,
Edgbaston,
Birmingham, B5 7QX
ECB ACO
Lord’s Cricket Ground
London, NW8 8QZ
The Cricket Umpires and
Scorers Trust (Available to
ECB ACO members)
Enquiries/requests should be
addressed to:
The Chairman
The Cricket Umpires and Scorers Trust
c/o JF Rushton Accountant
The Satum Centre
Spring Road
Ettingshall
Wolverhampton, WV4 6JX
email us at [email protected] contact us on 0121 446 2710
Magazine Editor
Ben Francis
[email protected]
Front cover image of ECB U13 National Club
Championship Finals, Rugby School,
Warwickshire, 16 August 2016
© www.photosunlimited.org.uk
Photography © Getty Images and ECB ACO
unless otherwise stated
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