The Sri Lankan Cricket Umpires’ Association (SLCUA) held its second seminar on the Laws of Cricket for a batch of over 100 participants at St. Peter’s College in Colombo last Saturday (22) and Sunday (23).
According to Ashroff Ghany, the President of SLCUA, an examination will be held on November 10 at the St. Peter’s College auditorium in Colombo. “The seminar was a success.
We had over 150 inquiries but were able to accommodate just over 100 participants for our second seminar,” Ghany said.
The seminar was headed by international umpire Ranmore Martinez while veterans of the trade, S. Pushparaja, E.K.G. Wijewardena, A.C.S. Perera, D.N. Pathirana and J.W.K. Boteju also addressed the gathering. The SLCUA merged with the Association of Cricket Umpires of Sri Lanka (ACU) in 1980 on a request by former officials of the Ministry of Sports and decided to take their own path citing a poor level of umpiring by the main stakeholders.
The SLCUA, which was formed in 1975 by the late D.C. Camillus Perera, was revived in June this year and it conducted a workshop where it saw 50 umpires graduate from the programme.
“Our main task is to install strict discipline among our members in order to discharge umpiring in a just, fair and firm manner.
The initiative is very positive and we hope to conduct more programmes like this with the association of Sri Lanka Cricket,” Ghany added. The programme was keenly followed by the participants who came from all parts of the country. The SLCUA hopes to draw more youngsters into the trade which they see as a need that should be addressed quickly.
“Our main concern is cricket and its quality. Youngsters nowadays lack the interest for umpiring though they have the potential. Our aim is to introduce more quality and young umpires through our workshops,” Ghany said.
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