ECC announce umpire courses

The European Cricket Council have lined-up three Introductory Umpire Courses for April 2006.

They are in the Netherlands and Finland on the April 21-23, with ECC Tutors Ken Amos and Dennis Stones and Norway on the April 28-30 with Ray Hoyler.

The ECC Introductory Course deals with the basic elements of umpiring and the laws that every umpire must understand before setting foot onto the field.

It is delivered throughout Europe by ECC Tutors and the syllabus consists of: umpires working as a team, duties during the match, leg byes, run outs, batsman out of his ground, the wicket is down, wide ball, dead ball, no ball, boundaries, caught, unfair play.

It also covers the laws that European umpires will come up against bearing in mind that most European matches are on artificial pitches and are of limited overs.

The Course concludes with the ECC Introductory Umpire Examination, which involves a visual and oral element.

The Course and Examination are conducted in English but there is provision for translation if necessary.

There is no requirement for the student to write any exam answers in English.

“The Introductory Umpires Course is the bedrock of a sound understanding of the laws and elements of field craft. To pass the exam is great but everyone who attends will be a better umpire,” said ECC Tutor Ken Amos.

The ECC has a well developed umpiring education system in place, which allows umpires to benefit from the excellent training system developed by, not only, themselves but also the English based Association of Cricket Umpires and Scorers.

This education structure offers umpires the chance to gain ECC Introductory, ECC/ACU&S GL6 and ECC/ACU&S Overseas qualifications.