CSA holds elite umpires' assessment workshop

Cape Town - Cricket South Africa (CSA) held its annual assessment workshop of its elite panel of umpires during the course of a three-day conference in Bloemfontein this week which focuses on the Personal Development Plan for match officials.

Key areas covered included conflict management, an individualised training program, including fitness assessments, nutrition and recovery techniques, financial and strategy planning and an interaction session with top IRB referee Jaco Peyper.

“This is the first time CSA match officials and attended a fitness assessment session and we will in due course be filtering this down to the lower tiers of match officials,” commented CSA General Manager: Cricket, Corrie van Zyl.

“In this respect I would like to express our thanks to the support we have received from the Free State Sports Science Institute (FS SSI) and we will be making this a biennial event.

“This is all part of our plan to achieve operational excellence in all areas of our activities.

“We are extremely proud of the standards our top umpires achieve with Marais Erasmus, who serves on the ICC Elite Panel of Umpires, recently being named ICC Umpire of the year and being awarded the David Shepherd Trophy.

“We also have Adrian Holdstock and Shaun George serving on the ICC International Panel and Bongani Jele on ICC International TV panel. In addition we have umpires benefiting from the experiences they enjoy through our exchange arrangement with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Cricket Australia (CA) and Cricket New Zealand (CNZ).”

The following umpires attended this week’s workshop:

Murray Brown, Johan Cloete, Lubabalo Gcuma, Adrian Holdstock, Cliffie Isaacs, Bongani Jele, Allahudien Paleker, Gerrie Pienaar, Dennis Smith, Brad White.

Shaun George and Stephen Harris are currently umpiring overseas and will be assessed when they return.