By Frederick Halley

TORONTO, Canada – Only two positions were up for grabs when the Scarborough Cricket Umpires Association (SCUA) held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the Number 43 Police Division, Scarborough here on Sunday and both incumbents, Mathew Francis and Nazaam Ally were returned unopposed as treasurer and assistant secretary respectively.

Based on the constitution of the SCUA, the other posts, those of president, vice-president and secretary were not contested, ensuring that Albert Ramcharran, Bisham Singh and Azad Khan remained in their corresponding posts.

The SCUA executives also agreed to the formation of a disciplinary committee which is headed by vice-president Singh and comprises senior umpire Ashook Brijcoomar, Richard Thompson and Frederick Halley.

The SCUA also took the opportunity to hand out certificates and extend congratulations to several of its members who were successful at various levels of the West Indies Cricket Umpires Association (WICUA) and Canadian Cricket Umpires Association (CCUA) examinations over the past year.

Among those receiving certificates were Vish Jadunauth and Mathew Francis, who excelled at the WICUA examinations and are now fully qualified First Class umpires. The two were unavoidably absent from the WICUA 2017 Convention when the certificates were handed out.
Both Jadunauth and Francis are highly recognised umpires in Toronto and according to CCUA and SCUA secretary Khan, the WICUA members were extremely impressed with the performances of umpires emerging from the CCUA.

Apart from being umpires, both Jadunauth and Francis are also long-standing executive members of the Scarborough Cricket Association (SCA) while the former is a founder member of the Ontario Softball Cricket League (OSCL).
Other successful umpires receiving their certificates on Sunday were Ramnarine Prashad, Nazaam Ally and Ishrat Ansari (Level Three).

The SCUA is currently gearing for the commencement of the 2018 season which is scheduled to get underway on Saturday, May 12 with matches in the Scarborough Cricket Association while the Ontario Softball Cricket League season starts on Saturday, May 26.
Towards this end, there are ongoing weekend seminars being conducted by secretary Khan who is urging members and those aspiring to be umpires to attend.

Meanwhile, a specially arranged training session will be held on Sunday, May 6 next at the Number 43 Police Division to discuss playing conditions for the upcoming season and all captains and umpires are asked to make a special effort to attend. The meeting is scheduled to run from noon to 17:00hrs.

Among the resource personnel are umpires Azad Khan, Bisham Singh, Vish Jadunauth and OSCL vice-president Terry Mathura.