Association of Cricket Officials Issue 30 | 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 Esther de Lange – ICC Europe Nick Cousins – Head of ECB ACO Bruce Cruse – Head of Participation Chris Kelly – ECB Umpires’ Manager Fraser Stewart – MCC Sue Jones – National Scorers’ Officer 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 Sub-Committees 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 Hamish Grant [email protected] Photography © ECB ACO, MCC or Getty Images unless otherwise stated. Designed and produced by Coachwise Creative. A Very Busy Winter Off the Field I hope that the season went well for you and you have managed to both catch your breath and perhaps take a holiday – or at least had some time off from cricket before the start of the Ashes. Some of you will still remember the challenges that were faced 10 years ago immediately following the changeover from ACU&S, and I am sure that everyone involved was ‘busy’ in the interim period and during the negotiations that brought about the formation of ECB ACO. However, for my part, I cannot remember a time since I joined ECB ACO that so much has been ‘going on’. I wrote about this specifically in my last editorial and I mention this again now, because bringing about change requires strong and committed leadership, not just from the Head of ECB ACO and the Management Committee, but also from each of you. Having a strategy is one thing, but it cannot just remain as words on a page and not be translated into action. For example, your role in ensuring that the Law changes are integrated into the game smoothly and without issue is crucial, whether you are officiating in a Premier League, junior cricket or standing as a club umpire. Between now and the beginning of the season there will be ample opportunity to access the information necessary to achieve this and I hope that you will all take advantage of one of the courses that the ACO will have on offer, whether delivered face-to-face by your local ACO or league, or whether available online. Please also look at the new MCC addition to our knowledge base and make the most of it! It is available to all at https://laws.lords.org/course/view.php. I think it is a fantastic resource, but, just because I say it, it does not necessarily make it the case, so as always, write in or email with your views (and any errors that you find). Talking of accessing material online, I hope that you have seen the Occasional Umpire course and/or the Club Scorer course, both of which have been live for a few months. Most importantly, in the weeks since the Occasional Umpire course was ‘soft launched’ there have been over 1,000 individual registrations and similar for the Club Scorer course. This speaks for itself and again shows a way forward for our education and training packages – if we are to be successful in targeting a wider audience for umpire and scorer training and thereby reach new markets for both generic recruitment, awareness of officiating and increased membership of ACOs. I hope that you know that all other umpire courses have been rewritten and updated to both reflect the new Laws and a change of emphasis that focuses less on the teaching of Laws and more on teaching people how to umpire. That is not to say that a thorough knowledge of Law is less important now than it was formally, far from it, but more to place the responsibility for learning the Law on the umpires themselves. We have just completed delivering no fewer than 10 familiarisation courses to our tutor workforce over the last five weekends. With over 320 attendees this was a 92623 2 email us at [email protected] contact us on 0121 446 2710