Bob Parry Joins ICC East-Asia Pacific

The ICC East-Asia Pacific office would like to announce that International umpire Bob Parry has joined the Pepsi ICC East-Asia Pacific Development Programme in the role of Umpires Manager.

Parry who is the current Umpires Manager for Cricket Victoria will draw on his experience umpiring International ODI's and Twenty20 matches when given the task of mentoring umpires in the developing countries throughout the East-Asia Pacific region.

"I am looking forward to working with EAP Umpires and stakeholders to help improve the cricket experience for all involved in our great game," said Parry at the ICC East-Asia Pacific Regional Conference in Christchurch last week.

Parry's umpiring career has come a long way since its beginnings in the early 1990s when he commenced umpiring through the Victorian Turf Cricket Association.

He made his Interstate debut in 1997 in a match between Victoria and the Canberra Comets. Five years later he umpired his first International match alongside Darrell Hair on the hallowed turf of the MCG in a match between Australia and New Zealand in front of almost 50,000 people.

Since that time Parry has umpired in two International Twenty20 matches, four ODI's as well as more than 30 as third umpire, 7 test matches as third umpire, 70 Australian domestic one day matches including the 06/07 final and 74 Sheffield Shield/Pura Cup matches including 4 finals.

ICC East-Asia Pacific Regional Development Manager Andrew Faichney says that the appointment of someone with Parry's experience will be of huge benefit to the region.

"On behalf of everyone associated with Cricket in the East-Asia Pacific I would like to welcome Bob into his new role," said Faichney. "The last decade has seen tremendous development in our member countries in terms of umpiring and we are thrilled to have someone of Bob's experience join the team to build on this development and take umpiring to another level in our region."

Despite this impressive resume combined with his extra experience with Cricket Victoria overseeing the training of more than 1,500 umpires and being a member of the Cricket Australia Umpiring panel for the last 10 years, Parry still believes he will face new challenges in this role.

"Potentially the greatest challenge for me in this new role is dealing with the diverse competency of those in the Region," said Parry. "Also gaining an understanding of the cultural differences in the participating Associate and Affiliate members of Cricket?s global Communities is a challenge I am looking forward to."

Parry's first opportunity to work "hands on" with the local umpiring talent in the region will be at the upcoming Pepsi ICC East-Asia Pacific Division 1 Trophy that begins in PNG on 4 July. This tournament is part of the qualification pathway for the World T20 event to be staged in Sri Lanka next year.

Competing teams in PNG will be the hosts as well as Vanuatu, Fiji, Japan and Samoa.