Greaves wants more young umpires donning whites

President of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Umpires Association Goaland Greaves wants to see more young umpires coming forward to officiate in local cricket matches and eventually go on to international level.{{more}}

Greaves’ plea is in light of the current pool, which according to him, “will not be going on for much longer”.

Greaves noted that some of the umpires, who have been at their craft for more than three decades, are ready to call play on their career.

The local umpires head is, however, heartened by the recent elevation of Ray Charles, who at the age of 22, is a qualified West Indies umpire. Charles, along with Deighton Butler and Cardon Ross were the successful Vincentians in both the oral and written examinations.

But Greaves wants to see more and is encouraging females also to become qualified umpires.

Greaves said the Umpires Association has mapped out an approach which they believe would allow more persons to don their coats and stand in the national cricket competition in the first instance.

“We have an ongoing training programme throughout the season, where we will be discussing the laws of cricket and other aspects of umpiring. We will be looking at various aspects of umpiring, such as coping under pressure, match management; how umpires manage a cricket match; the umpires’ health; and what you should do and should not do before you go and umpire a cricket match; for example, you should not take alcohol the night before or even hot beverages, something like coffee that dehydrates you”, Greaves confirmed.

Once on the brink of that elusive call up to stand in the middle for a one-day international match, but which never came to fruition, Greaves stated: “We want it to be a more holistic development of an individual, where you will be developing yourself as an umpire and also as an individual”.

Greaves emphasized that greater demands are being placed on umpires as modern day cricket also calls for more accountability, hence the need for younger persons.

“There is a lot more to do than just umpiring a cricket match now… even our regional first class matches and regional one-day matches, the standby umpire in the absence of the television umpire, the standby umpire is responsible for keeping records of players leaving the field, assisting the umpires while counting, as well as ensure that the over rates are maintained”, Greaves said.

Additionally, Greaves stated that the burden on the on field umpire is mounting, as no longer does he or she need only a coat and a counter, but has to be equipped with a bowler’s marker, a spare pair of bails, a calculator, a spikes key and a note pad, among other implements.(RT)