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] 2 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 Designed and produced by Coachwise Creative 92191