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CRICKET: Umpires chief Reed hits back

3:55pm Thursday 14th January 2010 in


The chairman of the Home Counties Premier League’s umpires panel has hit back at criticism of a potential boycott of Aston Rowant by officials, following the fracas there last season when two players came to blows.

League umpires were due to meet last night to discuss the possible boycott, which prompted critical comments on the Oxford Mail’s website.

Panel chairman John Reed said he was acting out of a “duty to our panel’s members” and denied he was on a personal crusade.

Reed said: “I received several phone calls from panel umpires expressing concern about the incident at Aston Rowant and the way it was dealt with.

“It was therefore felt the need to call a meeting, so the panel could have an honest and open discussion to clear the air.

“I am certainly not on a personal crusade against anyone.

“I believe the meeting will put forward proposals to the league management to ensure that the way this was dealt with will not happen again.

“The umpires panel is completely independent of the league management and we have already expressed to them our dismay at their handling of this matter.”

Comments(3)

Mr Singh says...
4:08pm Sun 17 Jan 10

Mr Reed...why the hell have you reserected the above incident. Being the Chairman of the umpires panel....Im sure you make sure your umpires are of a high standard & know the laws of the game inside out.....Im not sure what your point is here as in this case your umpires decided not to remove the 2 players from the field of play and allowed them to continue...so they must have thought the incident to be not that serious......dont go blaming anyone else for what followed....as it is your umpires that are in charge of the game remember....on the point of friends....its you that have made a fool of yourself and have a large number of enemies now...ARCC acted as any other club would have done & as far as im concerened and many others around the area have been commended for doing so....A word of advise Mr Reed...I think you should button it as you have made some nasty remarks now...

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Fringe says...
6:39pm Sun 17 Jan 10

Mr. Singh, you are unaware of the laws of the game. The umpires have no right to discipline or order off players from the field of play. It is the responsibility of the captains to ensure that the game is played according to the spirit of the game. This was codified in a preamble to the laws in May 2000.
It would be a seriously bad move to make umpires responsible for policing players conduct. They are only there to see that the game is conducted fairly and according to the laws of the game.

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Santa Brooks says...
5:24pm Sun 24 Jan 10

Oh dear John!

The umpires are up to their old tricks again threatening to withhold labour when they want to call the shots.

The HCPL need to be strong here, if the umpires go on strike sobeit. Let's call their bluff, clubs will find their own umpire, not ideal at that standard but sobeit. Those umpires who top up their pension (tax man?) will soon re-appear without their union badge.

In the meantime we can get a growing cost out of the game and have a re-think.

Cricket has many volunteers who have their grumbles, the umpires are no different to everyone else. They should be offering a valued service not their opinion.

Time to say bye bye to a group of militants who are the biggest single problem in local cricket.

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