Following lengthy discussions at a recently-called Emergency General Meeting of the Cornwall Cricket Umpires and Scorers' Association (CCUA), the meeting voted by a large majority to bring about the dissolution of that association from the end of the current season. The CCUA has served as an independently- managed organisation for some 35 years and has more than stood the test of time in providing panel umpires to the Cornwall Cricket League and delivering of umpire training programmes through locally-based ACU&S courses. Many course participants have gone on to achieve varying grades of national recognised qualifications, including the prestigious QMU status awarded to umpires who attained the highest examination grade and with supported fieldcraft skills gained through match officiating. In January this year, the ECB formed a new Association of Cricket Official (ECBACO) and instructed all its county cricket boards throughout the country to set up local branches of their new association. This had to be done to fulfil previous agreements between the parties which county boards must meet in order to fully benefit from ECB target-achieving grant awards. Disappointingly, neither the ECBACO nor the Cornwall Cricket Board, showed a willingness, during their discussions, to consult or liaise with the CCUA and, therefore, it was left to the CCUA's own management committee to move this issue forward by calling an EGM of its membership to ascertain their preference as to the future route it should take within the structure of Cornish cricket. Although a case was presented 'against' adoption of proposal that would result in the demise of the independent body, open to anyone with an interest or active participation as a cricket match official, the meeting felt they really had no alternative but to go along with the new ECB setup. Had they not done so, there was strong likelihood that Cornish umpires would, in future, be denied opportunities to officiate Cockspur Cup and other ECB competition matches and that could include Premier League fixtures. Also, funding would become more problematic and the association would further be denied access to running of the new ECB umpire training courses that will, hopefully, materialise sometime in the future. There will be other benefits to members of the new local association, likely to be titled the Cornwall Association of Cricket Officials (CACO) and operating under the auspices of the CCB and ECBACO. Representative The new body will, according to the ECB, have an appointed representative sitting on the Cornwall Cricket Board – a move that the CCUA had previously resisted strongly. Furthermore, provided members maintain their annual registration and subscription to the ECBACO, they shall automatically be members of their local county branch without further payments, since this is to be met by the ECBACO. However, such local membership will now only be available to those who are members of the ECB ACO. According to ECB-acquired information, some 70-plus Cornwall-based residents have already joined ECBACO, thereby holding dual membership. This is far greater number than the present membership of CCUA and promises much for next season, when it is hoped these new acquisitions will come forward to stand in Cornwall Division Two matches which has been starved of official panel umpires during recent seasons. All those persons should, in the coming months, be invited to the inaugural meeting to form the CACO and to appoint a committee and the acceptance of ECBACO constitution. The ECB has struggled, during the past couple of years, to get its new Level 2 umpire training course off the ground. This is to provide the level of qualification that they recommend all umpires involved in first X1, and some second X1, League cricket should be at least working towards. Our present CCUA umpires who hold QMU qualified status will be 'down-graded' to this new level, which shall become highest accepted for recreational cricket umpires. With only eight tutors so far trained nationally to deliver this course and, with no other recognised alternative programme now available, further delays are inevitable and there is a likelihood of a few years passing before much progress is made. Any member who has joined ECBACO and is concerned about lack of confirmation of membership, non-receipt of a welcome pack or not receiving of a newsletter should contact Sam Greaves of ECB, by e- mail: sam.greaves@ ecb.co.uk, or write to: ECB Association of Cricket Officials, Lord's Cricket Ground, London, NW8 8QZ. Further information about ECBACO and details of their training programme can be found on the ECBACO website – www. ecb.co.uk/ecb/ ecb-association-of-cricket-officials. On matters of local issues, contact Joe Skinner, the Cornwall cricket development manager, who may be able to assist.
