Simon Taufel Has Come Up With A New Online Accreditation Course For Umpires

Simon Taufel has created an online accreditation course with the goal of filling training, development, and benchmarking gaps for umpires. The course launched on Tuesday and includes three levels of accreditation: introductory, Level 1, and Level 2.

It is accessible to anybody, including laypeople interested in becoming umpires and umpires of all levels looking to improve their abilities and knowledge.

The Course Is More Practical Based: Simon Taufel

Taufel, who has long been the game’s top umpire, wrote the whole course content himself and developed the curriculum in collaboration with the ICC Cricket Academy in Dubai, which has hired him. The online training, according to Taufel, is based on a more practical approach to umpiring rather than the typical “dry method” of learning the Cricket Laws.

“What we’re launching at the ICC Academy is an umpire’s accreditation programme where we can benchmark some core competencies that we are looking for in cricket umpires at different levels,” Taufel told ESPNcricinfo.

“So, we have three courses that we have developed/are developing. The first one is an introduction to umpiring, which is aimed at mums and dads and school teachers and people that are new to umpiring.

“Try and teach them the role of the umpire, what to do on match day, what to do in preparing for a cricket match and how to get them through their first experience of being a cricket umpire,” he further stated.

On the practical nature of the course, the former umpire said, “The traditional approach in introducing umpires to cricket has simply been to teach them the Laws of Cricket. That has limited value, and it is a very dry approach to inducting new people to umpiring.

“What I would like to stress is, that we’ve really focused on more video content. And trying to make it easier for people to watch and listen, rather than just reading lots of text.”

This is a public-access, first-of-its-kind global credentialing course on umpiring. The ICC, as well as member boards, can “promote” umpiring by supporting the online course, according to Taufel. However, passing the online course does not automatically qualify an umpire to preside in competitive matches, according to Taufel.

Besides, it would provide the person with a breadth of knowledge and resources that, according to Taufel, are currently only learned “on the job” by umpires.

Taufel, who retired from international cricket in 2012 after winning the ICC’s Umpire of the Year award many times, is still a powerful figure in the game’s officiating community. He claimed that, unlike coaching, umpiring lacked a standardised evaluation method.

According to him, the ICC and member boards might tailor this online service to their own needs. It could also assist governing bodies in allocating more staff and resources to make umpiring a more important cog in cricket growth, which is now lacking in numerous nations.

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