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| Dickie Bird |
Every year we hear instances of shocking umpiring decisions
within our local leagues; some due to lack of knowledge and some due to the
sheer stubbornness and arrogance of the umpire. Regardless of the reason, we
all know that these decisions can change the course of the game and even decide
the outcome. My goal with this blog is not to point fingers at the umpires or
discuss specific cases, but want to point fingers at ourselves and the league
authorities who may have contributed to the current horrible umpiring standards
which we are accustomed to in our local leagues.
I believe that in order for us to improve our umpiring
standards, we as a league should encourage our umpires to join trainings,
seminars and most importantly real game situation seminars where they can learn
from qualified umpires (we have quite a
few in our local leagues and damn good ones I might add). Now the biggest
question is, how do we “encourage” our current roster of umpires to take part
in these trainings etc.? TWO WORDS: RECOGNITION
& COMPENSATION
I propose that we start to recognize umpires that come to
the games with the intention of doing a good job and not just for the sake of
collecting the umpiring fees. I appreciate the effort these guys make to come
and stand in the hot sun and officiate, but what I don’t appreciate is the lack
of professionalism some of these umpires show by not even carrying a coin for
the toss. So, I say go ahead and recognize ONLY good umpires at the end of the
year so, maybe the umpires who don’t meet the mark understand that their lack
of application is being noticed.
My second proposal will be to place umpires who attend the
league sanctioned trainings I mentioned above in a higher compensation tier.
This way the umpires will be compensated as per their certification and
experience. Yes, this may put a bit of an extra burden on the teams as far as
expenses are concerned, but in the long run it will benefit the teams.
These were just a few ideas that I think will benefit our
umpires and our leagues. I will love to hear what your thoughts are on the
matter and who knows; maybe an idea that came from you will be implemented in
our leagues which may benefit our cricket community.
