By Neto Baptiste
President of the Antigua Cricket Umpires Association (ABCUA), James ‘Son-Son’ Stevens, said all officials, including umpires and match referees, are furnished with copies of the updated laws of the game and playing conditions prior to the start of the domestic cricket season.
His declaration comes on the heels of a match between New Winthorpes Lions and All Saints Pythons in the Antigua and Barbuda Cricket Association (ABCA) Two Day competition being “wrongly” abandoned by match officials last weekend.
“Before the season starts we looked at the playing conditions as an umpire association, and we also look at the playing conditions with the cricket association, along with the match referees and umpires so we had two occasions when we went through the playing conditions. Every umpire has a copy of the playing conditions,” he said.
Reports are that umpires Bertel Baltimore and Avoy Knight, along with match referee Vanroy Burnes, opted to abandon the clash between Lions and Pythons after one of two overnight batters from Pythons did not show on day two.
According to Stevens however, the rules now state that the batter must be given time to arrive at the venue and could be given out if failing to arrive within the specified time-frame, at which time, a new batter could be called to the crease.
“They were quick to admit that they did apply the law wrong, and the Match Referee in that match was Vanroy Burnes. The rule changed a couple of year ago that the batting team, on the second day, once they have two batters eligible to bat then you start the game. If one or a few of them out, and there are no other batters to come then the umpires would award the game to the opposing team. All Saints on Sunday, did have enough, or they did have batters eligible to bat,” he said.
Stevens said that both Baltimore and Knight are good umpires with stellar track records, but admits that more could be done in providing additions practical assistance leading into the domestic season.
“In terms of on-field work, that hardly happens unless they go by a club during practice sessions and get some on-field practice, but differently we hadn’t done any matches in December so it was Baltimore’s first outing for the year. Baltimore, from since he joined the association back in 2019, has been consistently in our top six umpires according to the captain and match referee reports.
In Avoy Knight’s case, because of work commitment between 2020 and now, he was on the field in 2020 for one day of a two day match because he was sick on the second day, and in 2022 he did a one day match and last year he did a two day,” the umpire boss said.
President of the ABCA, Leon “Kuma” Rodney, said the body would look at the ruling and make a decision regarding the status of the match.
