ContactThe Association of Cricket Umpires and Scorers
supplying laptops, projectors and course CD-ROMs
This is a very exciting and visible demonstration of how the Association has moved into the 21st century and is taking advantage of the latest, most appropriate modern
technology and IT systems to train umpires and deliver a better service to the game,
BARRY STUART-KING
ACU&S CHAIRMAN
The first twenty-five of a designated one hundred and twenty five senior Umpire Instructors of the Association of Cricket Umpires & Scorers (ACU&S) will
assemble at Aston University, Birmingham, to receive brand new state-of-the-art laptop computers plus video/data projectors. These will be used to run newly-developed,
CD-ROM-based, training software.
Over the course of the next two months, a total of £250,000-worth of these new Instructor kits will be distributed to the Association's senior Instructors in time for the start of the new training and examination season. The kits include the latest Elonex Soliton ProWire laptop, NEC 460 video/data projector and new modularised course CD-ROMs. And they will be used for the intensive programmes that have been developed by the Association to educate and train probationer Instructors for both student umpires and scorers.
Barrie Stuart-King, ACU&S Chairman, commented that "Most umpire training until now, while incredibly thorough, has been predominantly book-based and required much class-room learning. There was little or no consistency nationally in either the structure or length of the courses or in the training aids used by different Instructors. Our new, more professional, visual-aural/visual-oral umpire education and examination systems, developed by the Association's experts over the last three years, are not only more appropriate to the changing demands of cricket in the 21st century, but are also by design much more relevant to the practical realities of the role and responsibilities of the umpire officiating out in the middle. Remember, the vast majority of cricket umpires will never have instant video-replay technology to fall back on. They have to make their decisions there and then, using their eyes, ears and of course their comprehensive understanding of how to interpret and apply the laws of the game, correctly and confidently under pressure.Ó