Umpires and the future
With the dark nights still very much here winter nets start to emerge out of the foggy January gloom of the winter days. After an amazing trip to the Arctic Circle I have had time to reflect on a new subject to talk about this month. My attention quickly turned to umpires and how they are recruited following several posts on my social media accounts by clubs (who have been made to do so by league rules) posting about finding umpires for the 2026 season. A lot has been written about the decline in umpires and various things league to make sure there are officials in league matches at the highest level (I’ll get onto lower levels in a bit) but I always feel there is no grasp of the social and economic things impacting the whole adult population of the UK and how these things outside of the ECB’s or any county board’s control need to be considered in the future when recruiting not just umpires but scorers, club and league administrators. OK Boomer The phrase above is a much de...