Association of Cricket Officials Issue 28 | Page 2

TEAM SHEET ACO Management Committee Vacant – Chairman Vacant – Deputy Chairman David Bird – West Midlands Terry Burstow – South Central Les Clemenson – South West and Wales Peter Hinstridge – East Peter McKenzie – East Midlands Sid Poole – London Philip Radcliffe – North Ed Shuttleworth – ICC Europe Nick Cousins – Head of ECB ACO Bruce Cruse – Head of Participation Chris Kelly – ECB Umpires’ Manager Fraser Stewart – MCC ECB ACO Executive Nick Cousins – Head of ECB ACO Glyn Pearson – Education Manager Hamish Grant – Finance, Administration and Projects Officer Ben Francis – Customer Marketing Manager (ACO) John Overton – National Growth Executive (ACO) Martin Gentle – Membership Services Manager Karen Cassidy – Membership Services Officer Phone – 0121 446 2710 Email – [email protected] ACO Management Subcommittees Education Scorers Performance and Development Appointments and Grading 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 and members of the former ACU&S) Enquiries/requests should be addressed to: The Chairman The Cricket Umpires and Scorers Trust c/o JF Rushton 77 Moatbrook Avenue Codsall Wolverhampton West Midlands WV8 1DJ Or, email [email protected] The trustees cannot guarantee to meet every request, but each will be given due consideration. Magazine Editor Ben Francis [email protected] Photography © ECB ACO and Getty Images unless otherwise stated Designed and produced by Coachwise Creative 92621 2 Change Is Good! Some thrive and others will resist, but change can teach us to adapt and help us develop resilience, but only if we understand our capacity for growth and learning. I want to begin by thanking you for giving such a ringing endorsement to the changes to the Constitution that you voted for so overwhelmingly immediately after Christmas. The Over and Out messages that have been sent out by email have confirmed the outcomes and kept you informed of progress since, in terms of changes to structure and personnel. There is also more detail elsewhere in this magazine, so I will not dwell any further here. Suffice to say that the importance of officiating (umpires and scorers) in creating ‘outstanding experiences in our clubs’ has been re-emphasised and is now a key strategic priority for the ECB in particular and cricket in general across England and Wales. Moving inside the ECB tent enables us to form stronger partnerships with other aspects of cricket. This has a number of elements, but at its core is the intent to grow significantly the number of officials in the game, whilst providing our Association with the benefits of the additional expertise that has been brought into the business in the participation, marketing, systems and membership support department. Of course, I am not naïve, and recognise that in all cases actions speak louder than words, and, to add another cliché, the proof of the pudding will be in the eating. But I am as confident as I can be that we are entering an exciting period in the ACOs evolution, which could reap huge benefits. As always at this time, everybody in the core volunteer workforce has been busy in the training of our scorers, umpires and assessors. With the advent of the new Laws being the main catalyst, the latter part of 2017 will see us launch a completely new portfolio of training courses (Levels 1–4), having examined thoroughly both the content and the context of each element of our current programme and looked to see how we might improve our offering. We need to take care not to initiate change for changes sake, but I think that everybody accepts the basic premise that our umpire courses need to concentrate more on teaching more field craft (how to umpire) and less on basic laws (what to umpire) accepting that there is always a balance to be maintained. Similarly, our scorer courses need to recognise the importance of newer methods of scoring: both using a computer or an app on a tablet or a phone. While learning to book score undoubtedly teaches the essential basics for all scoring using whatever mode, we need to be open to the suggestion that learning to book score may not be the sole methodology of introducing scoring to prospective practitioners. In essence, the umpire training courses will remain chronological and progressive, but be renamed to match the numerical levels that we have all been used to. Thus, the first entry level course will be called the Club Umpire and, while still designed to give an overview of the basic Laws of the game and how to apply them, it will concentrate more on introducing principles of field craft and match management. The intention is that this course will provide the basic tools to enable an attendee to umpire matches at those recreational levels of cricket where there are no independent umpires appointed. The second level will be called League Panel Umpire and is email us at [email protected] contact us on 0121 446 2710