Sheffield Cricket Lovers' Society Year Book 2012

9 If memory serves me correctly, as a player , you don’t really take too much notice of the umpires. You know who the better ones are and you know which end you want to bowl from. For example, if Dickie Bird and Ray Julien were standing together, as a bowler you wanted to be at Ray’s end and if you were a batter and you played the sweep, you wanted to be at Dickie’s end. Simple really, one umpire gave more lbws than the other - it didn’t make one the better umpire - it was just the way of things. I remember vividly bowling to Neil Fairbrother in a one day quarter final. It was a really tight game, Fairbrother attempted to sweep me and he missed it. The ball hit him on the pads and there was a big appeal - we thought out but Dickie Bird thought otherwise! When Neil and I chatted about the incident after the game - he said he thought he would get away with it if he missed it, because Dickie didn’t give many lbws!! Also as a player, you knew which umpires not to back chat to; personally I never saw the point of arguing with an umpire - no point in setting the officials against you. You certainly didn’t want to upset Alan Whitehead or Don Oslear because they would have you in chains, throw you in jail and throw away the key!! As a player you didn’t know many of the laws and regulations - you just got on and played the game. I think my over-riding thought regarding the umpires during my playing days was that you had absolutely 100% faith in them regarding decision-making, impartiality and ability, therefore they had your complete respect. As a 2nd XI coach at Northamptonshire I looked at umpires from a different perspective. The 2nd XI umpires seemed to have been around for ages and had all been locally appointed - mostly for political reasons. Across the counties the same thing was happening and unfortunately the best results for professional cricketers weren’t being achieved. Whilst all umpiring is important, umpiring in 2nd XI cricket is crucially important because you can be affecting someone’s career, their life. Fortunately, things have improved today, all appointments are made by the ECB, ensuring that at least one umpire is from the professional ranks thereby giving 2nd XI cricket a far more professional look. During my time as a coach, at the end of the season the coaches got together collectively to have our de-brief and one aspect was to talk about the best umpires that you may have seen. We recommended them to the ECB for consideration to become full time professional umpires - Jeff Evans being one of those recommendations. So my study of umpires was becoming more astute, however one thing puzzled me - how come so many no-balls were missed, surely it’s not that difficult ....... more on that later. My appetite for umpiring was whetted and when I knew my days as a coach at Northampton were coming to an end I started taking umpiring courses over the period of two winters. It was only during these that I realised how little I knew about the game - and I’d been in it for 25 years! To get some 2nd XI matches under my belt I had to beg a few favours from my old mates; fortunately things went very well and I was soon appointed to the reserve 1st class panel. From there it was waiting for dead men’s shoes to be appointed to the full list and three years later it happened. Umpiring is undoubtedly the hardest job I’ve done in cricket – • playing the best • coaching the most frustrating • umpiring the hardest Being an ex-player certainly helps your umpiring - you have a 6th sense as to what’s coming next - that insight is vital to help making you a decent umpire and it can’t be found in any textbook. And one thing which isn’t hard, is that you do get the best seat in the house to watch some excellent cricket. Oh yes, those no-balls. I’ve realised they aren’t so easy to spot - apologies to any umpire I may have berated in the past! Sheffield Cricket Lovers’ Society Depending on where you stand... By N.G.B. Cook, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and England