SOUTHERN CAPE NEWS - The South Western District Cricket Umpires Association (SWDCUA) is facing the challenge of boosting their dwindling umpire numbers.  

With senior members lying down their clickers, there is limited interest from new potential umpires, in both the male and female leagues. Currently there is a big shortage of female umpires, with none of the qualified members actively standing in the past season. The SWDCUA together with South Western District Cricket have a big task ahead of them to ensure cricket umpiring flourishes rather than stagnates in the region.  

According to the SWD Cricket Chief Executive Officer Albertus Kennedy, the SWDCUA has developed a comprehensive development plan over the past two seasons to address the challenges.  

"The plan has been singled out for praise from Cricket South Africa (CSA). We have adapted it for the 2017 season and tabled it to SWD Cricket at the recently held cricket workshop hosted in Oudtshoorn. The development plan identifies a number of methods of both gaining new members and developing the current members," Kennedy said. "Current umpires are developed by doing on-field training, where a young umpire is paired with an experienced umpire. Regular training sessions are also done at meetings. CSA has three levels of qualifications for umpires and current umpires have opportunities throughout the year to further their personal development by attaining the next level."  

Due to the geographic make-up of the SWD region, all available umpires are used most weekends, with Oudtshoorn umpires often having to travel to make up for the shortages elsewhere.  

All umpires wanting to stand in the various SWD Cricket leagues must be paid-up members of the SWDCUA. During the past season (2016/17) they had 50 paid-up members.  

ARTICLE:  LUZUKO SAMPO

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