Association of Cricket Officials Issue 28 | Page 17

Redfern Leads By Example ECB ACO was delighted to hear that one of our female members, Sue Redfern, was appointed to stand in the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifying series in Sri Lanka. We caught up with Sue to hear about her umpiring career so far, and what it was like to be on the big stage. Your journey so far After playing cricket for England I remained in the game playing recreational cricket at club and county level. In 2012 I realised my cricket wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be and I couldn’t perform to the level I wanted, so I made the decision to stop playing. Being involved for 25 years, I didn’t want to just stop being involved, so considered roles that interested me in the game. Umpiring was the obvious choice for me – on field, involved and making a direct impact in the game that has given me so much. Once I took my first qualification at my local county Warwickshire, I was given panel appointments in the Warwickshire Cricket League and also stood in Premier League women’s fixtures. After the first season I applied to become a panel member in the Birmingham and District Premier League. Most of my umpiring is now in men’s cricket. I have continued to take additional qualifications and was lucky enough to be given opportunities to officiate internationally through a female umpire programme to encourage female umpires leading up to the Women’s World Cup. What have you done to reach this point? A balance of education and personal development blended with experience on field and support through mentors/colleagues. It’s absolutely essential I place myself outside my comfort zone to learn new things and see how I react in different situations and match environments. When you are an umpire, much like a player, you keep learning every game you are involved in. You want to learn from people, ask questions and have to deal with things on field and make split-second decisions. I’ve had to really evaluate myself and look critically at how I have performed or reacted to things. I also tutor new umpires, which gives me a challenge in supporting colleagues but guiding them through fieldcraft questions and actual interpretations of the laws – all good things for my own performance. What was your match day preparation in Sri Lanka like and how was it different? The actual match day experience is similar to any match/tournament – the difference might be working with a third umpire and tournament referee – making sure communication is spot on. Pre match day is also about learning and interpreting the Laws and regulations, and ensuring the process is correct in terms of managing the match and any match reporting. In a tournament with multiple matches and colleagues, ensuring consistency is critical and making sure communication is there to support all your colleagues. Additionally, being away from home and effectively a full-time umpire for the period you are away is something you have to deal with – the team becomes your ‘go to’ people and your extended family. It’s not just about on-field relationships but spending time with colleagues off field too. Making sure you remain well through a tour is important too – as one umpire down puts pressure on your colleagues – so diet, fitness and rest is critical. Any advice for aspiring female umpires? Simply, if you think you want to have a go, do it…don’t think you can’t. Don’t be restricted to certain matches. Find people in your network who will help you and surround yourself with people who will support you. Make the most of working with colleagues and ask questions and learn from them. Don’t worry about past playing experience. Umpires come from a variety of backgrounds, from parents to volunteers, to players. Finally, don’t worry too much about decisions – we are human and we will sometimes get things wrong. Don’t take it to heart, learn from it and work hard to understand why mistakes were made – don’t beat yourself up over it. I spent my first couple of years doubting some decisions and worrying. Park your thoughts until after the match and then reflect on your performance properly to improve. What are you wanting to achieve in 2017? Focusing game by game, making my routines as consistent as possible and implementing my goals in game. You can’t think too far ahead as every match, every ball and every decision is important – so I just want to perform well in each match and learn throughout the year. Obviously I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to be part of the World Cup, but this is something I cannot control – my own performances I can – so that’s where I will focus. I’m also midway through my Level 3 qualification so I want to complete this through a dissertation-type presentation to my peers on an umpire-relate d subject. A general day-to-day diary Being away is very much full on – throughout Sri Lanka it was either one or two days’ cricket then a day off – there were never two consecutive days off. I arrived in Sri Lanka late evening and the very next day I was in a full day’s regulations workshop. Following this, the next day was a warm-up game, then there was a day off before the tournament started. Days on – early wake up, leaving the hotel and aiming to be at the ground one-and-a-half/two hours in advance of the game. Familiarisation and ground checks, post-match there would be a mini team review then a post-day full team meeting in the hotel sharing the day’s events from each of the matches. With the timings they were pretty much 7.15am–9pm days. Days off varied, but all the team contributed to organising something either touristy or just relaxing – we managed to sightsee and some of us socialised around the hotel/local area. We did a couple of full team trips – one to Galle to see the fort, another to visit the elephant orphanage, and we went to Kandy to visit the Temple of the Tooth (sacred Buddhist temple). We also went to the beach, shopping and had meals together. ECB ACO is committed to not only training more female officials but also developing our current crop, helping them reach their full potential as umpires or scorers. 2017 is a huge year for women’s cricket in England, with the best eight teams in the world competing in the Women’s World Cup. We are hopeful that this event will help inspire people to get involved in cricket. We hope to hear more stories like Sue’s in the future! email us at [email protected] contact us on 0121 446 2710 17