Report to Leinster Cricket Union/Cricket Leinster, 2012 season
The co-operative and mutually-supportive relationship which exists between the Association and the LCU/CL, and especially with the Open Competitions Committee, continued to prevail. We hope that this will continue and, especially, that the OCC will pay special attention to suggestions we have made concerning playing regulations.
Liaison with players
Our executive had a very productive meeting with senior captains on 3rd October. Invitations were sent to all clubs in Divisions 1 and 2 in 2012 and we are most grateful to the captains of Leinster, North County, Pembroke, Terenure, The Hills and YMCA for attending and giving us invaluable feedback on umpiring.
Umpiring appointments
Although we had 16 new umpires this year, some formerly good performers disappeared entirely and one who has been in the top two or three every year for some time could stand only in the first part of the season. As a result, total appointments were down slightly (906 compared with 934). However, at the top end, coverage continued to be satisfactory and we nearly met our targets as regards Divisions 1-6. Because of an error, we missed one match in Div 3, but otherwise we covered all 153 games in Divs 1-3. Coverage in Divs 4-5 was down a bit but we actually did more games in Div 6 than last year.
The senior cups (Bob Kerr, National, LHW and AMC) and the Senior 2 Cup all received 100 percent coverage in all rounds, but we were down somewhat in our coverage of the earlier rounds of the more junior cups. Promised central organisation of the Pilkington Plate will help us in providing officials for those games.
As always, the only constraint on our coverage is the availability of umpires. We have ample qualified umpires on our books: the problem is to get them to umpire more frequently. Over the past two or three years, we have recruited gratifying numbers of younger umpires, but so many of them still play (and usually cannot offer two days per weekend to cricket) it will be a while before this surge in new people has an impact. We continue to encourage greater availability and we hope that clubs will encourage their players, especially those recently or imminently retiring, to take up this activity. We have circulated all club secretaries about our Level 1 course.
Training
In November 2011 seven umpires took the Level 1A course, including one from Cyprus. The tutors were assessed and Inge Bevers was instructed in taking the Level 2 interviews in order to have a qualified person in Leinster. Only one umpire did not pass the course and the work done by all, both during and after the weekend, was very positively received by the ECB/ACO assessor.
There was a surge in interest for the Level 1 umpiring course and we had to organise a second course in order to meet that demand. In total, 24 people did the exam and 16 passed, one of the best passing rates in Europe. During the 2012 season, about half of those who took the course actually took to the field as umpires (many, or probably most, of the new umpires are current players and so we do not expect major availability yet).
In March, Alan Tuffery and David Walsh conducted a Level 1 umpiring course in Munster.
Once again, Siobhan McBennett organised and led a Level 1 scorer course and, of the five participants who took the exam, four passed.
The normal workshops on various aspects of practice, laws and new regulations took place in March and April.
Discipline
We continue to be grateful to the Disciplinary Committee for the way it dealt with our reports and for its thorough and fair hearings over the past season. We also very much appreciate the fact that, this year, the Committee decided not to hold hearings for Level 1 offences where the player accepted the umpires’ report. This saved our members inconvenience and removed a disincentive to reporting.
Our main concern as regards discipline arises from two high-profile cases this season involving abuse (and in one case very obscene abuse) of umpires. This offence (unless it involves racial or religious abuse, which these did not) is merely a Level 2 offence – that is, equivalent to minor dissent repeated within 12 months – attracting a maximum of a two-match ban. It is a Level 2 offence in the ICC code, but our members would not regard what is suitable for international cricket, with professional players and umpires, as suitable to give adequate protection to Leinster umpires. We shall be engaging with the LCU over this and other aspects of the code of conduct.