Redfern, Cross, Williams, Polosak: four female umpires to take on the world
When Kathleen Cross, Sue Redfern, Jacqueline Williams and Claire Polosak, the four female umpires making history at ICC events, had to decide their line-up for these interviews, they did so in the most scientific fashion: with a game of rock paper scissors.
Like others at the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier 2017, the umpires too are a team: one that communicates in the middle and evaluates performances off it. The team in Colombo includes a grandmother, a former school teacher, an ex-international and a bibliophile, who bond and banter over shopping trips and shared victories against smooth-talking tuk tuk drivers.
The quartet first came together at the ICC Women’s World T20 2016 Qualifier in Thailand, when for the first time the cricket body appointed four women as match officials. Since then, they’ve become increasingly common faces at international tournaments. Cross and Polosak stood in the Women’s World T20 in India, while Redfern and Williams were part of the ICC World Cricket League Division Five in Jersey, when for the first time two women officiated in a men’s match. They’re now all on the umpires panel for the World Cup qualifier, notching another win for women in cricket.
It’s a thankless job; as Polosak says, “You are required to start perfect and get better from there.” But it’s a challenge they have embraced. The open up about their journeys, their Simon Taufel fandom, their strategies to stay calm, and what role models do in their downtime.
New Zealand’s Kathy Cross, 59, only began playing cricket aged 30, after a “desperation call” from her club one Saturday morning when they were short a player. It would be at least another decade before she turned to umpiring.
In a family of 12 other siblings, Cross was the only one who enjoyed cricket. “I was a bit of a loner there. So when there was Test match cricket on TV, I’d be the only one sitting there, if I was allowed at all.” Her husband and children, though, share an involvement in the game, and when coaching at her daughter’s college, she was talked into accompanying the deputy principal on an umpiring course.
Cross is the most experienced female umpire today, having stood in Women’s World Cup matches in 2000, 2009 and 2013. She was the first woman on what was then called the Associate and Affiliate panel. Now, she finally has company on the circuit and enjoys the camaraderie.
“I didn’t have any problems with being an umpire itself, but gender-wise, it was very lonely. Perception is paramount out there as far as players are concerned, and a lot of male players have not been umpired by a female umpire.
“People have seen that I’m a bit of a pioneer for women in cricket. I’m a little humbled by that really, because I’m only doing what I love doing.”
Pro tip: “My preparation starts days and days ahead. It’s going through all the playing conditions, making sure I’ve got the right playing conditions – because inside a week we could deal with at least four or five different playing conditions.
“The day before a match, no late nights. I don’t baby sit, unless it’s an emergency and my children know that now. I just have a quick look over the playing conditions again and make sure I’m rested up well, watered up well, have had a good meal, not too heavy the night before. I try not to do too much stuff in the gym, because I feel that takes me back. I have to be careful that I don’t overtire myself.”
As a youngster, Claire Polosak didn’t have posters of Backstreet Boys on her bedroom wall in New South Wales – remember she’s only 28 – but instead a newspaper clipping of a local hero, Simon Taufel. She even nervously stood in line to have her Laws book autographed by the now retired elite umpire.
With no girls team in her town, Polosak didn’t play cricket growing up – “I’m quite good at hitting the ball before it bounces, but once it bounces I’m out of the game!” – but the January family holiday was a trip to Sydney to watch a Test. “At around 16, a friend came to school with a flier and said, ‘Dad says you like cricket, give it a go.’ It was an advertisement for the umpiring course.
“My dad drove me from Goulburn 250km to Sydney for me to complete the course. I failed the course a number of times, which I think was because I had not played so the scenarios questions were quite difficult. But every time I did the course, I got a little bit better.”
An easy and animated conversationalist, she had a day job as a school teacher until late last year. “There are a lot of transferable skills between umpiring and teaching. Communication between different people, decision-making skills, conflict resolution, which I think has helped in my umpiring,” she says. “When I was still teaching, kids would ask, ‘Miss when are we going to see you on TV?’ I would say if that’s step 10, I am on step 4. It’s good for young girls to see, cricket or not, that if you work hard then you can achieve anything whether it is cricket or life or other sports.”
Polosak now has a role with Cricket South Wales in umpire education and female engagement. “I’m still teaching, but not teaching year 9 boys about puberty, but teaching people about umpiring and what they want to do, which is really great!”
Pro tip: “Make sure you know the playing conditions. Between November and end of December, I had 12 different playing conditions that I needed to know across different competitions. If you know the players, then fantastic. Back home in competition, I call u
p umpires who have had the teams previously – to get any tips, if any bowler you need to be aware of, any batters who are doing anything funny. Physically, it is important to be well hydrated. Because if you are well hydrated you can concentrate for longer periods of time, which is important in 50-over cricket.
“I wish I’d have done my Laws course and understood Laws whilst I was a player, because I think it would have made me a better cricketer,” says Sue Redfern, a former left-arm medium pacer who played six Tests and 15 ODIs for England.
Her background has allowed her to better anticipate movement on the pitch. And she perhaps speaks from experience when she says, “Appealing from the players doesn’t suggest anything.”
In her first year standing in games, especially in men’s cricket, few people knew she had played cricket. “With any cricket umpire, the players will test you. They will try additional appealing. They will check your understanding and knowledge of the Laws, and being a new umpire, I had excessive appeals.”
Cricket was Redfern’s first love. With a father and brothers who played cricket, it was “either be part of cricket, or be isolated”. “When I decided I was no good at cricket anymore, that I was just deteriorating in my ability, I thought I want to stay in the game, and I want to put something back into cricket, so I decided to take my umpire course. It’s accelerated from there.”
Redfern, who is pursuing a diploma in HR and works full time with the England Cricket Board, is glad for the chance to show a pathway for girls beyond just playing. “An umpire is there for the players, for the game … We know that player satisfaction relates to how umpires perform. So if I come off the field and there are players that are satisfied, those players might keep playing, but they also might think of umpiring in the future. [With us] as role models, girls have the confidence that they can go and be an umpire.”
Pro tip: “I get butterflies. I used to get nervous as a player, to the point of physically feeling quite sick. So being able to take myself away, get into routines [is helpful]. Taking some deep breaths, working and talking to my colleague, and going out and being calm.
“During a match, if I’ve got some doubts, if I want to park something and maintain my focus on the here and now, I jot down things like the ball number and what the situation was. [Later] I can speak with a colleague, review video footage and look at the reasons why I’ve been making the decisions. So I’m ready for the next ball, I don’t have to worry about remembering the previous ball, because it’s all in the back pocket.”
“I used to give umpires a hard time, so I didn’t bring much from that side to
umpiring,” says Jacqueline Williams, reflecting on her playing days in Jamaica. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, she tends to be more understanding of cricketers.
A desire to be close to the game after her playing days took her to umpiring. And now, it comes with perks. “You got to meet people, you got to go places. It’s fun … the sky is the limit!”
Apart from her ICC commitments, Williams was the first woman to officiate in West Indies’ domestic 50-over competition. “Being a pioneer, it’s an honour,” she says. “I have a responsibility on being given this opportunity to ensure that whatever I do somebody is going to emulate that. So, I try to do my best at all times and hope that other females back in the Caribbean will see it and take a step forward.”
Like her colleagues, she stresses on the importance of sleep and relaxation for any umpire. One way she does that is through reading. And if she’s not at a cricket match, she’s probably at a soft ball game.
Pro tip: “Beforehand you block everything out and know that it’s ball by ball. Whatever you see, whatever you hear, that’s what you go with. [In case of a doubt,] I recover by thinking that there is a next ball coming. The last thing I want to do is [think about] ball 3 and make an error in ball 4, 5 and 6.
“I look to see how calm [the best umpires] are, especially after referral. If a similar scenario comes up, they are not afraid to make their decisions. Calmness is the first step, and being able to accept that you missed that one and move on.”
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“Most of the women in our system do predominantly men’s cricket, so they do have the capacity. All they need is exposure,” says Adrian Griffith, ICC senior manager, umpires and referees, backing his team.
Urging more women to get involved in the domestic structure and make their way up, Griffith says ICC have informed the member boards of their intention to improve diversity on their panels. “We want to get more females into cricket, into umpiring. We rely on them (board) to set the tone and get more females to umpire. They are in charge of the system in their board, and all that we require are the ladies that come through can demonstrate the necessary competencies.”
He adds: “We are grooming umpires … You may be male or female; if you demonstrate the necessary competencies to umpire at the international level, then you can go all the way. What I am saying is, that a female umpire can go all the way to the elite panel, if that is what she desires.”
With inputs from Sidhanta Patnaik.