Cricket South Africa holds conference for match officials

Cricket South Africa held a four-day conference for its match officials in Gauteng, covering all aspects of their role. Participants were required to write exams on specific subjects and also exposed to the practical aspects including the latest developments in television technology.



With the domestic season set to get underway next month, officials were given additional information about entering a bio-secure bubble, the precautions that would be taken and ways of dealing with mental issues that the pandemic has brought to the fore. The sessions were headed by sports psychologist Dr. Dawn Saunders.



“The mental issues of the new normal is something that we have to deal with in a pro-active manner,” CSA Director of Cricket, Graeme Smith, said. “It is a very important part of our planning for the season ahead. We benefited from extremely valuable input from sports psychologist Dr. Dawn Saunders."



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All participants were required to undergo a COVID-19 test ahead of the conference, and each one of them returned a negative report.



Through the course, participants got the chance to interact with umpires Michael Gough and Marais Erasmus who spoke of their journies to the ICC elite panel of umpires, and the various challenges they faced along the way.



“This sort of interaction is incredibly valuable to our match officials,” said Smith. “They were also able to draw on the inspirational input from Marais Erasmus, our own representative on the ICC elite panel, who was able to relate his experiences at the 2019 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Final."



“Marais is a wonderful role model to all our umpires. It was fitting that he presented the official CSA black blazers to the two umpires recently promoted to our first-class panel, Abongile Sodumo and Mazizi Gampu,” he concluded.



CSA First-Class Panel: Murray Brown, Mazizi Gampu, Siphelele Gasa, Lubabalo Gcuma, Shaun George, Stephen Harris, Ryan Hendricks, Adrian Holdstock, Arno Jacobs, Bongani Jele, Tom Mokorosi, Allahudien Paleker, Dennis Smith, Abdoellaah Steenkamp, Abongile Sodumo, Philip Vosloo, Brad White.



CSA Reserve List Panel: Lauren Agenbag, Rudi Birkenstock, Gawie Botha, Jannie Erasmus, Gladman Gaseba, Marlon Jansen, Kevin Lawrence, Sinethemba Mjekula, Bongani Ntshebe, Jurie Sadler, Godwin von Willingh.



CSA Match Referees: Shandre Fritz, Devdas Govindjee, Barry Lambson, Zama Ndamane, Laurence Matroos, Gerrie Pienaar, Shaid Wadvalla.



https://open.spotify.com/episode/4X7caoWMZTti86bfnvyySF?si=GMwpRlcCSM-GKzmT3Tn5kw