IT is often stated by cricket umpires that they watch the game from the best seat in the ground.

Such was the case on the easter weekend when members of the Coffs Harbour Cricket Umpires Association were invited to officiate at the games played by visiting teams which played in the Sikh Cricket Tournament, organised by local Indian cricket identity and legend Arrun.

Each game was played for only 16 overs – 8 batting overs for each side, and there were quite a few not so ‘traditional’ rules such as wides or no-balls adding 4 runs to the batting score.

Each side fielded only 8 players leaving a lot of ground to be covered by each fielder.

Of course, the playing conditions were less than satisfactory with very wet playing surfaces and rain showers interrupting play quite often.

Graham Doust was one of the umpires who officiated the cricket competition at the Sikh Games, and explained to News Of The Area the aggressive hitting which was a feature.

“One might have expected quick running between wickets but, in typical Indian laid-back style, the batters found it more convenient to hit boundaries rather than waste energy running up and down that 22 yards (20.1 metres),” he said,

“In the four short games played at Maclean Street on Friday there were seventy-one times that the ball flew over the boundary for six runs with the umpire becoming quite fatigued raising his arms to signal each six.

“With retirement for each batter set at 30 runs it was exciting to see batsmen take a single or two and then hit five sixes in a row to reach the retirement score, or to watch a ball hit from Reg Ryan Oval and disappear in the yard of a villa two houses east of the ground!”

Doust also said he couldn’t ascertain what the players were trying to express.

“It was also very difficult for umpires to ascertain what was being said on the field as most of the animated discussions were in the Indian language,” he said.

“This may have been a relief to umpires as they had no idea whether decisions were being disputed or there was a team disagreement.”

After three days of experiencing exciting hitting, skilful bowling and good humour each of the umpires, Gary Campbell, Ted Bailey, Bruce Alp , Kevin Walker and Graham Doust could only surmise that the games were played in a great spirit, although very serious at times, and great fun was had.

Coffs Umpires Association is always looking for new members to help out in the cricket season.

Remuneration for umpiring is quite generous and training is available to anyone interested in participating in this fine way to contribute to this great game.

For further details contact Gary Campbell on 0414649003 or Graham Doust on 0414711951.

 

By Aiden BURGESS