Sticky Wicket January 2015

Sticky Wicket January 2015

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

It’s the season for Debuts

Your Umpire’s Association SACUSA Committee—Main Contacts President: Craig Thomas - 0434 165 310 V. President: Tony Trist— 0408 828 129

SACA Neil Poulton - 0416 623 518 or 8300 3211 Anthony Jennings - 8300 3244

Secretary: Michial Farrow - 0435 872 215

Cody Niemann - 8300 3874

secsacusa@hotmail.com Treasurer: Lynton Donisthorpe - 0418 317 856 Patron: Neil Dansie

- 1900 950 598

Sticky Wicket Editor Tim Pellew

Inclement Weather Information Line

0414 585 842

pellew@internode.on.net

There is a first time for everything No matter how many games you have umpired or how many years you have spent preparing for the day, an umpires first game in A Grade is always and exciting and sometimes scary affair. Over last season and continuing into this season there have been a number of umpires making their debut in the West End A Grade competition. Cory Black, Cain Kemp, Neal Cotgrove, Adrian Drosd, Jimmy Edwards, Rajesh Sambamurthy, Michial Williamson, Paul Welbourn, Alan Coulthard, Matt Schultz and this coming weekend Dhaval Bhatt. There are probably a couple of others but what is special about this group is it represents much of what our A Grade panel may look like in the years ahead. What is also exciting is the average age of this group is 37. This is significant when only 6 years ago the average age of the A grade umpiring panel was 58. Congratulations to these umpires and others who have achieved a first in 2014 and to those who are about to in 2015. Every first time is special.

Neil

facebook.com/sacricketumpiresandscorers

Sledging Australian batsman David Warner said last week that on-field verbal exchanges have 'crossed the line’ and counselled teammates and rivals alike to show a bit more restraint, says a report posted on the Cricket Australia web site yesterday. While conceding, given his past history in regard to such issues, he is an unlikely source of such advice, journalist Andrew Ramsey says the opening batsman identified "the needless goading of batsmen immediately after they have been dismissed as a potential flash point that needs to be hosed down".

Warner, 28, who was fined after last month's opening Adelaide Test against India for making provocative comments to Indian bowler Varun Aaron is said to have promised to take his own advice in this week’s fourth Test in Sydney. On-field exchanges continued in Tests two and three in Brisbane and Melbourne late last month, a situation that led some to warn that if such incidents were allowed to continue it could lead to a physical altercation during a game.

Asked yesterday if there were examples of on-field banter in the series to date that had “crossed the line”, Warner said: "Sometimes the way that we celebrate wickets, not just the Indian team but we do it as well [and] we’ve all got to be careful not to get over-excited and get in the batsman’s face”. “I think the best thing you can do is turn your back and give them the silent treatment when you get them out because you have the last laugh doing it that way”.

Meanwhile, former Australian batsman Neil Harvey, 86, wants to see the umpires "booking players for sledging”, according to a report in the India’s ‘Mid-day’ newspaper yesterday. Harvey, who played 79 Tests for his country from 1948-63, called the behaviour of both the Australian and Indian side’s "absolutely disappointing”. Referring to the bad blood between the two sides in 2007-08 which led at one stage to India threatening to abandon the tour), Harvey said the tenure of the series has gotten worse, rather than better.

Harvey said he did not like what he saw on television. "They just sledge each other from the start of each day's play". "This is nonsense [and] it's reached a stupid stage and it's time for the red and yellow card system which is used in football to come in”. "They all over do it and this sledging business has just got to stop”. "The umpires are too weak… that's the trouble”, stressed Harvey.

Last week Warner was quoted as saying that in the end “it comes down to the umpires or the ICC fining people when they cross the line you can’t cross”.

Now members, does anyone have an opinion to be printed in Sticky Wicket?

I umpired an U17 match last week and one player was “ in the face” of every batter constantly.

Unfortunately nothing to report him for that may have quietened him in his future cricket career. His coach was far from impressed when advised after the match. No other player of either team spoke with/to batters. Ed. ‘VINTAGE UMPIRE’ AWARD Long-serving umpire and match referee Graham Reed, who retired from active umpiring last year after fifty years with the New South Wales Cricket Umpires and Scorers Association (NSWCUSA), has been honoured by the NSW branch of Lord’s Taverners Australia for his "phenomenal and positive contribution to umpiring in NSW”. Reed, a NSWCUSA Life Member who turned eighty last month, has been named as the Taverners’ 2014 'Vintage Umpire of the Year”, thus joining former Test umpire Dick French the inaugural recipient.

Stories from the wicket Not a Phoney decision A player in a Grampians Cricket Association (GCA) Under-16 match in western Victoria was given out ‘hit wicket’ in a match in late November after his mobile phone fell from his pocket and dislodged the bails. Playing for Pomonal , batsman Marcus Elliott, who had forgotten about his phone when he went to the crease, played two balls from Youth Club bowler Jarli Blackmore and managed to defend the third, however, in doing so his phone fell on to the stumps.

Law 35 says that a batsman’s "wicket is put down either by the striker’s bat or by his person”, the latter which in this case included the phone, leaving the GCA umpire no option but to give him out.

Umpires’ Helmets?

Former Indian umpire Shyam Bansal, who officiated in six Tests and thirty One Day Internationals told the Press Trust of India recently that helmets should be made compulsory for on-field umpires. Bansal was speaking following the death of an umpire in Israel last December, About 6 years ago, Australian umpire Daryl Harper said that he believed that "it’s just a matter of time before umpires in higher-level Twenty20 matches wear baseball helmets which cover the face with a grill for protection”.

Trust Baseball-loving Daryl to come up with that. And many will know that Tim Ludeman wears a baseball helmet whilst standing up to the stumps.

Dog Business A match could not get under way last weekend due to a very wet, soggy patch at one end of the pitch where a left hand over-wicket bowler would land his delivery foot. The reason offered for the patch was that the grounds-man had to fill a hole dug there by a dog! Funny place to put a bone!

One captain keen to play said he would bowl his left handers from the other end: the other captain said he would not be bound to bowl left handers from one end only.

No-show Umpire The two-day ‘A’ Division Police Shield match between hosts Parsee Gymkhana and Mumbai Police Sports Club recently was marred by controversy that led to one of the two on-field umpires failing to turn up on Sunday for “personal reasons”. Media reported from the sub-continent that the umpire, who is described as a Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) panel umpire, pulled out after being "threatened" by that two unknown men on a motorbike on the way to the ground for Sunday’s play.

So beware of your decisions!

Oh, Stop it!!!

Did you know that: You can tune a piano, but you can't tuna fish!

The guy who fell onto an upholstery machine is now fully recovered.

Police were summoned to a daycare center where a three-year-old was resisting a rest.

Out, Not Out, 0ut Those who attended the Adelaide Strikers match against Perth Heat on 6 Jan this year are excused for wondering about the Craig Simmons stumping decision. The following is a report of what happened: ….Craig Simmons walked when he thought he had been stumped during a match at the Adelaide Oval on Tuesday, only to stop half way when the big screen at the ground flashed ’Not Out’. The matter had been referred to third umpire Mike Graham-Smith for a decision, however, reports say that while he judged Simmons to be out, he accidentally hit the ’NOT OUT’ rather than the ‘OUT’ button that triggers the video screen. Simmons’ relief and the crowd’s excitement that their home team batsman had been reprieved was quickly turned on its head though, for after Graham-Smith advised on-field umpires Geoff Joshua and Damien Meanley by radio of his mistake, they directed the batsman to the pavilion.

One Short Did anyone notice that during the recent Aust/India Test matches some umpires did not always watch for short runs? Always be on watch for short runs as experience of many umpires is that if a batter does run “one short” there will often be a member of the fielding side who will notice it (particularly w/keeper at his/ her end). If you miss one how do you respond to a fielder who did pick one up and question you?

Slow Quick Bowler I was watching a match recently after my match was washed out. The fast bowler, at end of his over after over, went to deep mid on instead of usual fine leg (not that there is a rule). There was already a third man for his bowling who was in the exact same place that he took up after his over. I timed (several times) how long he took from call of over to the time he was ready to bowl his next over: average 1 1/4 minutes. Seemed like some kind of time wasting to me for no apparent reason.

Safety Helmet Steve Remfry, an Adelaide-based designer of protective gear, says he has “blueprints" for a padded helmet flap he believes would protect players from receiving fatal blows to the neck. ‘Adelaide Now’ journalist Scott Walsh reported yesterday that Remfry, who has been designing made-to-measure arm guards, thigh, chest and shin protectors since 1987, thinks the new arrangement could be "road-tested" now.

Lost Ball Leeward Islands coach Ridley Jacobs has claimed the umpires “misplaced” the ball during tea on the third day of his side's first class game against Jamaica in Kingstown recently, and "the ball they came out with” at the end of that break cost his side the match. Jacobs is quoted as saying: "the ball we were bowling with before tea was sixteen overs old, but the ball the umpires came out with after tea was thirty-four overs old which is a big difference”.

One wonders how he knew it was 34 overs old!!!!

NZ ARTHRITIS AWARD FOR BOWDEN New Zealand umpire ‘Billy’ Bowden is one of six individuals who has been acknowledged for "outstanding contributions" to the lives of some half a million people in NZ who are living with arthritis. Bowden suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, a condition that can result in deformed and painful joints and in the worst cases can lead to loss of function.

What do you think?

Was the ball dead?

A match between Centrals and Indians in Rotorua (NZ) recently ended in a controversy with a last wicket dismissal in the final over that was claimed as "against the spirit of the game”. however, discussions soon afterwards saw the captains agree that the match should be recorded as a draw, the score sheet available on the Rotorua Cricket Association now recording the last two batsmen as ‘not out’.

With three balls remaining and one wicket left, Indians' batsman Amit Singh played a defensive stroke back to bowler Mark Chapman who picked up the ball on the pitch and "started walking back to his run-up mark". Non-striker Himesh Gosai is said to have then downed his bat and "thinking the ball was dead”, walked out of his crease to talk to his batting partner. Chapman then removed the bails with the ball and appealed, arguing Gosai had walked out of his crease. After a conversation with the umpire, Gosai was given out, handing Central a win.

An Indians' player said after the game that “Technically within the letter of the law [the dismissal] was out ... but it was against the spirit of the game. Central’s captain Jason Trembath said once his players were in the changing sheds, and had a chance to talk about what happened, they decided to call it a draw. The umpires accepted Centrals’ offer of the result.

MORE WOMEN NEEDED! A “new female officiating project” designed to encourage more “women and girls” to become active in umpiring and scoring is to be launched by the England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) Association of Cricket Officials (ACO) “by the end of 2014”. The new campaign will set out targets for "the recruitment, development and deployment of female officials across all levels of the game", however, a specific aim is said to be to identify and support “talented umpires” who have the potential for eventual appointments to womens’ international matches.

Currently just six per cent of the ACO’s 7,800 current members, or around 450 individuals, are female. How many of them are umpires is not known, however, anecdotal evidence suggests by far the majority of those 450 are currently serving the game as scorers.

Umpire Speak Australian broadcaster Channel Nine thinks that the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) move to make available the two-way umpire conversations conducted during reviews is a positive development, however, it wants those involved to talk more during such periods, according to Fairfax Media journalist Andrew Wu. The initiative, which the ICC has labelled a trial, is part of world body's efforts to make umpiring more understandable to viewers and spectators, and if it is successful it could also feature in "select matches" during the forthcoming World Cup. Why, Why, Why do we press harder on the remote control when we know the batteries are getting weak?

If people evolved from apes, why are there still apes?

The statistics on sanity say that one out of every four persons is suffering from some sort of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they're OK, then it's you!

Calendar of Events DATE & TIME

EVENT

DETAILS

16 / 1/15 from 5:30pm

Cricket Training for Easter

Adelaide Uni Oval Nets

23 / 1/15 from 5:30pm

Cricket Training for Easter

Adelaide Uni Oval Nets

30 / 1/15 from 5:30pm

Cricket Training for Easter

Adelaide Uni Oval Nets

6 / 2/15 from 5:30pm

Cricket Training for Easter

Adelaide Uni Oval Nets

8 / 2/15 from TBA

Family Fun Day

Semaphore Waterslide Complex. Great chance to bring your kids and big kids at heart for an enjoyable day of mini golf and water slides!

Annual cricket game versus Adelaide Turf Umpires at Woodville South Oval Parkinson Oval, Kensington

10 / 2/15 5pm

Stanton Cup

11 / 2/15 from 6pm

Monthly SACUSA meeting

15 / 2/15 at TBA

Blind Cricket Match

20 / 2/15 from 5:30pm

Cricket Training for Easter

Annual cricket game versus the SA Blind Cricket Association at Prince Alfred College 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 Biennial Easter event against the VCA Umpires & Scorers Association in Melbourne. A weekend of dinners and competition with the Vics.

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

Crockett Shield and Festivities

SACUSA Presentation Dinner