Sticky Wicket February 2015

Sticky Wicket February 2015

Newsletter of the South Australian Cricket Umpires and Scorers Association Established 1911

o you think?

SACUSA Committee—Main Contacts

SACA

President: Craig Thomas - 0434 165 310

Neil Poulton - 0416 623 518 or 8300 3211

V. President: Tony Trist— 0408 828 129

Anthony Jennings - 8300 3244

Secretary: Michial Farrow - 0435 872 215 secsacusa@hotmail.com Treasurer: Lynton Donisthorpe - 0418 317 856 Patron: Neil Dansie

Inclement Weather Information Line - 1900 950 598

Sticky Wicket Editor Tim Pellew

Cody Niemann - 8300 3874

0414 585 842

pellew@internode.on.net

Sometimes there is a reward for disappointment I try not to talk about myself very often (stop laughing) but this past week was an experience that a think will ring true with a number of umpires in the month ahead.

On the weekend I was lucky enough to umpire in the Australian Baseball League Championship Series, the grand final. Whilst this was “very cool” to say the

least it is how I got there which I would like to share…. I have umpired in the Australian Senior National Competition, in all 4 of it’s incarnations for the past 20 seasons. I have represented my country at every major baseball tournament possible and multiple times. I have been awarded the Australian Baseball Official of the year… well it goes on. BUT I had never in my 20 years at the top umpired at home plate in the grand final of the national co mpetition. I don’t know why, even though I have umpired in 5 championships in that 20 years I was always overlooked for the plate. Over the next month many of you may or may not expect to get finals at some level. For some there will be excitement and for others undoubtedly some disappointment. The General Manager of the Australian Baseball League

was very surprised when I sent him a message thanking him for the appointment and how much it meant to me. The average non-official has no appreciation that many umpires strive for the same reward as the players, that last day of the season, the big match. For some, maybe most of us, that dream is never realised. For a significant number however it is realised but sometimes after enduring many disappointments, setbacks, tough times and roadblocks. Patience and persistence hopefully will bring the reward. Believe me it is worth the wait. For those unlucky enough to see me on TV on the weekend, I may not have been smiling on the outside but I was absolutely glowing on the inside.

Best of luck for the coming weeks.

Neil

Our Magazine Sticky Wicket is a monthly cricket season publication of the South Australian Cricket Umpires and Scorers Association (SACUSA).

The first publication was November 2001 on a folded double-sided A3 sheet, then known as “On a Sticky Wicket”.

The current publication is a joint production between SACUSA and the Umpiring Department of

the South Australian Cricket Association (SACA). Its aim is not only to provide general information related to cricket but also to hopefully provide some amusement and interesting stories.

As “your magazine”, the nest issue - March 2015 – is over to you. It is to be for members’ input so let’s hear your stories.

The Stanton Cup Match, this Tuesday 17th Feb at Woodville South!!!

Heart and Soul Sri Lankan World Cup umpires Kumar Dharmasena, Ruchira Palliyaguruge and Ranmore Martinesz, are said to have rejected a proposal for "a five-star hotel party" to congratulate them on their selection and send them on their way to Australia and New Zealand. Instead they asked that the event, which was to be paid for by what Colombo’s ’The Nation’ newspaper yesterday called “sponsors”, be down sized and the monies saved diverted to help "a little known [umpiring] colleague" Gamini Wattewe, 53, who was incapacitated by a stroke last month and "now lies paralyzed and immobile”.

Kumar Dharmasena

Quiz

Who is the only batsman to hit a six on the first ball of a Test Match?

facebook.com/sacricketumpiresandscorers

What Is Your Decision?

The following occurred in a ‘C’ Grade match this season. During the second innings, at around 4.50 pm on Day 2 , both teams were simply waiting for the clock to reach 5 pm so that they could end the match.

With wicketkeeper was standing back, a pace bowler delivered the ball to which the batsman, facing just in front of his crease, played a forward defensive stroke. After hitting the bat then pad the ball rolled backwards to about 1 m behind his wicket. After the shot he remained out of his ground but did not attempt to run but rehearsed his stroke as and the wicketkeeper casually ambled up the few metres and retrieved the ball. Seeing that the batsman was out of his ground, he broke the wicket and appealed to the square leg umpire.

How would you answer the appeal? See what happened, later in this publication.

Heart and Soul Sri Lankan World Cup umpires Kumara Dharmasena, Ruchira Palliyaguruge and Ranmore Martinesz, are said to have rejected a proposal for "a five-star hotel party" to congratulate them on their selection and send them on their way to Australia and New Zealand. Instead they asked that the event, which was to be paid for by what Colombo’s ’The Nation’ newspaper yesterday called “sponsors”, be down sized and the monies saved diverted to help "a little known [umpiring] colleague" Gamini Wattewe, 53, who was incapacitated by a stroke last month and "now lies paralysed and immobile”.

Scoring Technology It is marvellous what programmes are available for cricket scoring on a computer. But what happens to a scorer’s record of the match if the computer crashes during a match? Chances are that the other scorer’s computer did not crash at the same time. Most electronic scorers also run a manual running sheet of some sort so hopefully between them at least the score is correctly recorded!

PitchSwitch 2nd Saturday. Turn up to find different pitch has been prepared from last week.

Pitch looks fine. (Note good idea on 1st day to note which pitch is used!!!!). You pitch wickets and then manager of last week’s batting side remonstrates that it is a different pitch; what are you going to do about it? “We’ll note it in our match report”. “But our opponents have a shorter boundary out there than we did.” “Well you had a shorter boundary last week on t’other side. So we won’t worry about it will we!”

Yes that happened.

Semi final Adelaide Strikers v Sydney Sixers Adelaide Oval, 24 Jan 2105, 52,633 attendees is biggest official crowd ever at Adelaide Oval (and when the crowd number was announced over the PA slightly before end of “our” miserable match I noted that most Sydney players turned to the crowd and applauded: nice).

Now what about: That Helmet Ball. All would have been the at that match or saw photos of the 144.7km/h ball delivered by our Kane Richardson lodging in the front of Ricci Wessels helmet grille. Do you know that not all helmets have insufficient space for a ball to pass through. Lucky Ricci!

That Broken Bat. And Brett Lee delivered at 149km/h to which our Craig Simmons in straight driving at the ball was left with only his bat handle in hand and the blade well down the pitch, both connected by a long length of handle twine.

That Rain. And a drizzle and shower of rain that lasted less than a minute late in Strikers attempt at an innings of note: sad note!

DAR LOOKING TO JUNE

Balls Up

2018 RETIREMENT?

Did you know:

Pakistani umpire Aleem Dar is to stand in his "fourth and last" World Cup over the next two months as he is looking to end his career after he reaches the 200 One Day International (ODI) match mark, according to media reports from Lahore yesterday. Dar, who won the International Cricket Council’s ‘Umpire of the Year’ award in 2009, 2010 and 2011, has indicated previously he planned to retire at the age of fifty, that birthday coming in June 2018).

In England in 1889, the over increased from 4 balls to 5 and in 1900 from 5 balls to 6 and Australia followed.

In Australia in 1922, it experimented with 8 balls instead of 6 (that stuck but in England it stayed at 6) and in 1979, the over decreased from 8 balls back to 6.

Olympics In 1900 12-a-side cricket was played during the Paris summer Olympic games although not as an official Olympic sport. Great Britain and France played one medal match as the other two entrants (Belgium and Netherlands) withdrew from participation. GB won but was awarded Silver and France Bronze medals. In 1912, the match was retrospectively recognised as an official sport at the Paris games and the medals were upgraded accordingly.

Research indicates that it is unlikely that cricket will be an Olympic sport in the near future, 2024 being a possibility. So in the coming 4 or 5 years when a new sport can bid for Olympic status, cricket matches would surely have settled to a universally agreed format suitable for Olympic inclusion. Who knows what that may be! One thing for sure is that it will not be a 4 innings match!

What Happened at “What is Your Decision?”

I turned down the appeal as I felt that the ball had become dead as, in my opinion, both batsmen and the fielding side had initially regarded the ball as dead as it lay motionless on the ground (Law 23.1 (b) is the most applicable reference). Neither batsman made any attempt to run, the striker was simply rehearsing his stroke, and the ‘keeper showed no urgency to retrieve the ball. I felt that this was contrary to the Spirit of Cricket. Clearly, if the ‘keeper had shown some urgency and sprinted towards the ball and broken the wicket quickly, I would have upheld the appeal and given the batsman out Stumped but the delay in his doing so meant that I no longer felt able to consider the ball live.

It wouldn’t be Sticky Wicket without a photo of our president.

SACUSA family fun day at Semaphore. Great day out!!!

Thank you Steve Warren. You read an article in Sticky Wicket and related it to your instance.

Thank you for reporting this experience for some of us think about it.

DECISION AWAITED ON BROADCAST OF UMPIRE REVIEW CONVERSATIONS It is not yet clear whether viewers watching the One Day International (ODI) tri-series between Australia, England and India over the next two weeks will be able to hear communications between the on-field and television umpires appointed to those games.

Former English Test umpire John Holder says the idea should not be proceeded with. In his view "there is no real benefit to TV viewers in being able to listen to the discussions between the TV umpires and his on field colleagues. "As time has gone by TV has become increasingly intrusive”, he says. "There are stump cameras, ultra sensitive microphones, hot spot, snicko, cameras on umpires 'helmets and now possible access to umpires conversations. Added to this, umpires have to wait for a signal from the broadcaster before the game can start. Gradually TV has taken over the running of the game. Some of their innovations are good but not this latest intrusion into umpires' conversations", said Holder.

Want to join the Marylebone Cricket Club?

(MCC: founded in 1787) Those registering with MCC are no longer confined to the traditional range of ‘Mr’, ‘Mrs’, ‘Ms’, but can instead choose from a full list of 52 titles, including a gamut of aristocratic handles such as ‘Lord’, ‘Baron’, ‘Count’, ‘Earl’, ‘Prince’, all the way up to – no joke – ‘His Royal Highness’ and indeed ‘Queen’. Also available are a range of professions and ranks (‘Professor’, ‘Inspector’, ‘Wing Commander’, ‘Brigadier’, ‘Sister’, ‘Father’) which sound suspiciously like an elaborate setup for a dirty shaggy dog story, and a curious collection of foreign honorifics, including ‘Don’, ‘Monsieur’, ‘Sheikh’, and ‘Begum’.

Quiz Answer

How many different SACUSA titles could we come up with without being rude?

Chris Gale, v Bangladash. It was the bowler Sohag Gazi’s first ball in Test Cricket! He had Gayle caught on the long-off boundary four overs later.

Older people often go to another room to get something and when they get there, they stand there wondering what they came for.

It is NOT a memory problem, it is nature's way of making older people do more exercise !

DATE & TIME

EVENT

DETAILS

11 / 2/15 from 6pm

Monthly SACUSA meeting

Parkinson Oval, Kensington

15 / 2/15 at TBA

Blind Cricket Match

17 / 2/15 5pm

Stanton Cup

20 / 2/15 from 5:30pm

Cricket Training for Easter

Annual cricket game versus the SA Blind Cricket Association at Prince Alfred College Annual cricket game versus Adelaide Turf Umpires at Woodville South Oval Adelaide Uni Oval Nets

27 / 2/15 from 5:30pm

Cricket Training for Easter

Adelaide Uni Oval Nets

6 / 3/15 from 5:30pm

Cricket Training for Easter

Adelaide Uni Oval Nets

11 / 3/15 from 6pm

Monthly SACUSA meeting

Parkinson Oval, Kensington

13 / 3/15 from 5:30pm

Cricket Training for Easter

Adelaide Uni Oval Nets

20 / 3/15 from 5:30pm

Last Cricket Training for Easter

Adelaide Uni Oval Nets

25 / 3/15 from TBA

Bradman Medal Presentation

Annual awards dinner at Adelaide Oval, celebrating all of Grade Cricket’s best and brightest

Crockett Shield and Festivities

Biennial Easter event against the VCA Umpires & Scorers Association in Melbourne. A weekend of dinners and competition with the Vics.

SACUSA Presentation Dinner

SACUSA’s “Night of Nights”. Celebrating all of our annual award winners at the Adelaide Pavilion, South Terrace, Adelaide.

Subsidised tickets are $70 for a sumptuous 3 course meal with beverages provided.

2 / 4/15 to 5 / 4/15

23/ 5/15 7pm