Association of Cricket Officials Issue 27 | Page 29

Umpires Attend CPL Seminar
ICC Americas, in conjunction with the
Caribbean Premier League (CPL),
hosted a three-day Umpires’ Seminar at
Fort Lauderdale, Florida from 26 to 28
July 2016 during the CPL 2016 games.
It is a matter of great pride that three
umpires of the United States of America
Association of Cricket Officials (USA
ACO), a USA-based umpires’ and
scorers’ body affiliated with ECB ACO,
umpire Deepak Katte (USA ACO
Co-Founder, President and ECB ACO
Umpires and Scorers Tutor in USA) and
ECB ACO L1A candidates, umpire Raj
Jalli and umpire Nikhil Deshpande,
were among the 20 umpires from
across the US and Canada who were
selected to participate in the seminar.
To be eligible to participate in this
seminar, umpires had to be ‘qualified’
and have officiated in local leagues
for at least the previous two seasons.
Successful applicants were provided
with a partial travel subsidy and
accommodation in Ft Lauderdale,
Florida.
The aim of the workshop, which was
held under the joint aegis of ICC
Americas and CPL, was to provide
education and training, and among
many things, to have three actionable
developmental outcomes for USA
umpires to implement in their local
leagues.
Prior to arrival, each participant was
required to submit, among other things,
a self-assessment form of their
knowledge on Laws and Playing
Conditions, their strengths/weakness,
season planner etc.
The three-day seminar took the
participants through a number of
interactive workshops and
presentations designed to improve the
knowledge and aptitude of officials
across the USA, all under the able
guidance of one of the PCT Teams of
CPL, headed by ICC Match Referee Mr
Dev Govindjee (CSA), international
umpires Mr Peter Nero (WICB), Mr John
Ward (Australia), Mr Leslie Reifer
(WICB) and officials from ICC Americas.

five groups. Each group was given two
practical problems to solve, with the
objective of presenting back findings on
day three. As an example of one of the
problems assigned to my group, we
were tasked to explore, suggest and
recommend the best possible
implementation of ICC Playing
Conditions for 50-overs game and T20
games (in addition to local conditions)
within the local league competitions
such that:
a)

leagues across the USA would use
the same Playing Conditions for
their tournaments

b)

a player participating in one
league at one coast can easily
acclimatise to playing elsewhere in
the USA and potentially for USA
and/or ICC Americas, with little or
no difficulty.

All the umpires were also taken to the
stadium by the ICC Match Referee Mr
Dev Govindjee and PCT Team to brief
us on field, stadium and facilities
inspection, to the third umpire’s box to
explain the role of the third umpire and
match referee during the game, and the
various technologies that are used.
On day three of the seminar (28 July),
each group presented their problem to
the entire audience and took
suggestions/recommendations for
further refinement and submission to
ICC Americas. In the afternoon, all 20
umpires, along with 20 coaches who
were similarly brought in from across
the country to be taught coaching by
various ICC/CPL coaches, were taken to
Central Broward Stadium for the Hero
CPL game between Guyana Amazon
Warriors and Barbados Tridents.

The purpose of the visit to the game
was to walk us 20 umpires through:
a)

pre-match meetings and
preparations

b)

game awareness during an actual
CPL match – one of the CPL
umpires in fact sat with us in the
stands to explain live various field
craft techniques of the on-field
umpires.

All in all, it was a great initiative to learn
about cricket Laws, Playing Conditions,
field craft etc from international match
referees and umpires, as well as from
fellow participants. It was also great fun
to be among several international
cricketers from across the world and to
learn, from their perspective, various
aspects of cricket and umpiring.
Thanks to ICC Americas and all the
officials involved in making this seminar
a truly successful and memorable one
for all of us umpires.

Day one of the seminar