USAACO Issues Invitation to Become an ECB ACO Qualified USA Umpire
Deepak Katte, the co-founder of the United States of America Association of Cricket Officials (USAACO) in inviting all who is interested in becoming qualified USA Umpires. Below is the Letter of Invitation issued by USAACO.com
Deepak Katte
By the way of introduction, my name is Deepak Katte and I’m the Co-Founder of USAACO (United States of America Association of Cricket Officials – http://USAACO.org).
On behalf of my co-founders, Paul Green and Ram Ragoo, I wanted to introduce our organization USAACO, and let interested Umpires and Scorers in USA know about upcoming ECB ACO (UK) Certification courses we are currently offering in the USA for the rest of 2016 –
1) ECB ACO Umpire’s L-1 (Second batch of 2016) – Tentative start date is Saturday, June 18th, 2016
2) ECB ACO Scorer’s L-1 – Tentative start date is Sunday, June 19th, 2016
ANYONE interested from ANYWHERE outside of Europe, with an Internet connection can enroll and peruse the training program from the comfort of their home, and still obtain an ECB ACO Certification coming from UK.
All a candidate needs is a good Internet connection and a computer with a sound card to login.
Anyone interested, please send an e-mail to [email protected] for the relevant application forms.
(Note – ECB ACO L-1 is equivalent to Cricket Australia “Community Officiating” Level and ECB ACO L-1A is equivalent to Cricket Australia “Representative Officiating” Level or a WICUA Full Certification).
Training Costs:
For the reminder of 2016, we are providing ECB ACO Umpire’s and Scorer’s L-1 Certification to any of our fellow US umpires at a subsidized cost. This will be our way of helping cricket far and wide.
Cost for each certification course is USD $100 (each), as against the normal cost of the same training at $135 each. The cost includes the ECB ACO Annual OVERSEAS Membership fees, the training, and material costs.
If candidates were to enroll for BOTH Umpiring and Scoring Courses, the cost would be further reduced to only USD $175 per person.
Our training ONLINE via Web-Ex is on Saturday/Sunday mornings (7:30 – 9:30 AM EST).
All candidates who participate in the training and successfully complete the relevant examination/assessment will receive a certificate from ECB ACO within 15 days of successfully completing the exam, from the UK.
Enrollment Process:
Those interested can send an e-mail to [email protected] expressing their intent, wherein we will then e-mail back the relevant ECB ACO & USAACO application forms. The candidate is expected to complete the form and mail it back with the check(s) for the relevant fees.
All candidates will first become ECB ACO Overseas members through USAACO, before attending any ECB ACO courses with us. We will facilitate the Membership.
The course fee includes all the costs for necessary membership and coursework.
A bit about USAACO:
As NJSCUA (The New Jersey State Cricket & Umpires Association – http://NJSCUA.com), we had been one of the first cricket leagues in US to run both the Cricket tournaments and TRAIN Umpires via Certification (from WICUA through its US affiliate). We did so for five years from 2009 to 2014 (though we had stopped the cricket operations ending with the 2012 season).
In 2014, we decided to seek alignment with ECB ACO (UK) in 2014, which gladly agreed to support us as an affiliate. Since then we have been training Umpires from across the USA as USAACO, and as an affiliate of ECB ACO, UK, the world’s largest umpiring and scoring organization.
My co-founder and colleague Mr. Ram Ragoo and I are the only two ECB ACO authorized Umpire and Scorer trainers in the USA. We are West Indies Cricket Board qualified apart from certifications from other cricket boards from across the world. We have been training for more than six years in the USA.
For the icing on the cake, we have an established an Umpire’s Exchange Program with ECB ACO, wherein mid-June 2016, FOUR (4) USAACO Umpires will be selected to go to the UK for two weeks of umpiring in ECB ACO Nottinghamshire County organized games, from school cricket to Premier League levels. This is a great ongoing program and is an achievement for any young organization, which gives a great opportunity for USAACO members to go to the UK and experience Umpiring in the land where cricket was born.
Year 2015 was our first ever ECB ACO batch and we had over 40 Umpires from across the US who had signed up. Most of them have graduated and are currently enrolled for Umpire’s L-1A this year. We have new members for L-1 this year.
Year 2016, we have around 40+ participants from around the USA and overseas enrolled for ECB ACO Umpiring and Scoring courses. There is currently one member enrolled from India who is undertaking the L-1 course (the beauty of technology).
Year 2016 thus far, we have finished one batch of Umpire L-1A training and we are presently finishing up Umpire L-1 Training.
