Geelong Cricket Umpires Association dropped ahead of GCA 2022-23 season.

A sporting league has spectacularly ‘sacked’ its umpires association, in a move that left the official ‘blindsided’.

GEELONG Cricket Umpires Association has been “blindsided” after it was dumped by the Geelong Cricket Association due concerns over the state of local umpiring.

The GCA board announced it would make a “strategic shift” to cut ties with the independent GCUA after an 84-year partnership, and instead establish its own internal subcommittee.

GCUA’s secretary Brian Jones said the association being “sacked” was nothing more than a “power grab”.

“We’ve had a frosty relationship with the current GCA board since they came on board, because they’ve always wanted to take us over,” he said.

“An umpiring body should be independent from the governing body to maintain impartiality and fairness … we were blindsided, we had no idea it was coming.

“I’ve already had feedback from a number of senior umpires that indicated they won’t continue … the umpires that do it for the love of the game will drop off.

“The simple fact is they wanted control and we weren’t prepared to hand it over.

“Clearly they’ve been plotting and planning for some time, and they caught us off guard.”

GCA president Rob Vines said moving away from the current arrangement, which had been in place since 1938, would help umpires flourish in the competition.

The board decided to make a “strategic shift”, with the GCA cutting ties with the independent Geelong Cricket Umpires Association, and instead establish an internal subcommittee.

“We want all umpires to be valued and supported and to have the opportunity to be the best umpires they can be, and we feel this was a step that was needed to set the service in a better direction,” he said.

“This is a change in the management of umpires, the message to our existing umpires is that they’re welcome and we hope they’ll continue to umpire in our system under the new arrangement.

“We’re not saying to the current umpires that we don’t want them anymore, it’s quite the opposite, this change doesn’t in any way, shape or form change the independence of umpires to administer the laws of cricket.”

The GCA’s changes made ahead of the 2022-23 season has come at a time where umpire levels are at an all-time low across multiple local sporting codes.

“But we’ve been concerned with the state of umpiring in the last few years … we’re hoping this change leads to continual and sustainable improvement within umpiring.”

Originally published as Geelong Cricket Umpires Association dropped ahead of GCA 2022-23 season.