… Simon applauds efforts of new administration

PRESIDENT of the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB) Hilbert Foster, as part of an ongoing Outreach Programme last Wednesday, met the executives and members of the Berbice Cricket Umpires Association (BCUA) at the Board’s Charlotte Street, New Amsterdam Office.

The BCUA delegation included president Joseph Simon, secretary Moses Ramphal and treasurer Jai Hardeo. The newly-elected president since his reign began on February 18 has been hosting a series of meetings to listen to suggestions from cricket stakeholders and also to inform them of plans for the rest of 2018.

Foster, in remarks to the umpires underscored their importance to the development of Berbice cricket and urged them to work along with the BCB to return the game to its rightful place. Noting that the standard of Berbice cricket has fallen at an alarming rate over the last two years, Foster stated that it would require a superman’s effort to lift it out of the doldrums.

With hardly no Inter-club tournaments being played, most clubs had ceased to exist and efforts are now been made to get them functioning again.
The BCUA was urged to get its house in order as the association would be expected to provide umpires for close to 16 tournaments expected to be organised by the BCB over the next nine months.

Foster urged the umpires to remain professional while ensuring that the rules of cricket are enforced at all levels without bias. The Association was also urged to attract new members as the workload would be too much for the current membership.

The BCB president committed himself to assisting the umpires association to finding avenues to attract new members and to get the association to improve its administration.
Foster would also seek to assist the BCUA by getting coloured T-shirts.
It was also agreed that the BCB would honour two umpires at its upcoming Annual Awards Ceremony on April 21, 2018.

The two awards would be the Runner-up Umpire-of-the-Year 2017 and Umpire-of-the-Year 2017.
Retired umpires and outstanding umpires would also be recognised and honoured at the BCB Tribute to Heroes Programme.

The BCUA members were told that Foster would be available at all times to listen to their suggestions and also to solve any problem.
BCUA’s Joseph Simon and the umpires present pledged their full support to the newly-elected executives and expressed confidence in the leadership of Hilbert Foster.