Elite Match Officials’ workshop conducted in Dubai
- A video news release of the four-day summit is available in ourOnline Media Zone
The world’s best cricket referees and umpires met in Dubai this week for the annual ICC Elite Match Officials’ Workshop as part of their ongoing commitment to continuous professional development.
The four-day workshop, which ended on Thursday, was attended by the Emirates ICC Elite Panel of Match Referees, Emirates ICC Elite Panel of Umpires and the umpire coaches.
The agenda included a reflection of the last twelve months which also covered key learnings from the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019, bilateral cricket, concussion substitutes and TV umpiring. Pace of play and ball management were also up for discussion.
ICC General Manager Cricket, Geoff Allardice and High Performance and Mental Coach Paddy Upton were among those to address the gathering during different sessions.
ICC Senior Manager, Umpires and Referees, Adrian Griffith: “Our team is spread all over the world and we get together rarely, so the importance of these types of workshops is to get everyone in the same room and share our experiences and what has happened during the year. It gives us an opportunity to learn from each other and work out what we can do better.”
“Officiating in international matches is a high pressure job that is subject to huge scrutiny and it is important that we learn continuously and grow as a team. There were shared learnings, which we hope to use to improve ourselves and ensure we push match officiating forward.”
Emirates ICC Elite Panel Match Referee, Javagal Srinath: “It is an emotional and dynamic environment that we work in. It is good to come back, talk about it, and add different ways of approaching situations. We always stand to gain something when we leave the seminar.
“The utility of such seminars can be felt when we start working at various matches. We make proper notes of it, go back, and check if everything we learned has been implemented. We remind each other about our learnings here so that we are all on the same page. The objective is to get people to think alike, have a common objective and ensure that we speak the same language worldwide.”
“Emirates ICC Elite Panel Umpire, Nigel Llong : “I think this has been one of the best conferences we had. It is not often that all 12 of us (umpires) get together. It has been very positive and productive. We spoke about a lot of different areas, pace of play, man-management, basically sharing ideas.
“Every time we get together, it is a feeling of togetherness. We are very unique in the roles we do. Sometimes you may not see the guys for six, seven, eight months, so when we do get together as a whole group, we just enjoy each other’s company. That’s great for team work, great for team bonding.”