Lo­cal um­pires are just one step away from be­ing cer­ti­fied by the In­ter­na­tion­al Crick­et Coun­cil which will make them el­i­gi­ble for se­lec­tion on the Emi­rates Elite Pan­el to of­fi­ci­ate at the high­est lev­els of the game. And to pre­pare them­selves for that cru­cial step in their ca­reers, 20 top lo­cal um­pires are par­tic­i­pat­ing in a high-lev­el four-ses­sion course com­pris­ing 30 con­tact hours at the Na­tion­al Crick­et Cen­tre in Bal­main, Cou­va. Ac­cord­ing to Dr Allen Sam­my, West In­dies Crick­et Board di­rec­tor and re­cent­ly-elect­ed Na­tion­al League rep­re­sen­ta­tive, the course comes to an end this week­end with the fi­nal two ses­sions on Sep­tem­ber 17 and 18.

Sam­my, who is al­so chair­man of the WICB Um­pires and Match Ref­er­ees Com­mit­tee said the par­tic­i­pants were sole­ly se­lect­ed by the lo­cal um­pires and scor­ers' body but that the pro­gramme was an ini­tia­tive of the WICB in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the T&T Crick­et Board. Dr Sam­my said the par­tic­i­pants in the course would have al­ready com­plet­ed the pre­lim­i­nar­ies and the fi­nal writ­ten ex­am­i­na­tion in­clud­ing oral and prac­ti­cal tests which would en­ti­tle them to of­fi­ci­ate at the WICB lev­el.

He said the Elite course pro­gramme was based on the ICC syl­labus and is be­ing con­duct­ed by ex­pe­ri­enced lo­cal um­pires Pe­ter Nero, who has a One-Day In­ter­na­tion­al un­der his belt; and Joel Wil­son who has per­formed Fourth Of­fi­cial du­ty at Test lev­el. They are be­ing as­sist­ed by Clarence Sharaf­fali, an­oth­er lead­ing lo­cal um­pire and match ref­er­ee and a few oth­er knowl­edge­able of­fi­cials who are lend­ing their vast ex­pe­ri­ence to the ex­er­cise.