swissFOCUS update

The Swiss Federation Of Cricket Umpires & Scorers (swissFOCUS) held their Annual General Meeting at the Restaurant Egghölzli in Berne on Saturday 17th December 2011.

During her address to the meeting the SwissFOCUS Chairlady spoke of a noticeable improvement in the quality of umpiring, a reflection of the organisation's investment a clear demonstration of the benefits of holding appropriate training courses.

On the negative side, she pointed out that there appeared to be considererably more interest in training as an umpire rather than as a scorer. She announced a renewed focus in this area. "We should have a minimum of two qualified scorers, ideally, at least one non-playing scorer per club....we will have to raise the the level of interest in the clubs."

swissFOCUS are expected to announce dates for Scorers' & Umpire Courses for 2012.

Ian Bond & Mira Koshy at the 2010 T20 final in Berne

All Swiss domestic matches & tournaments were supplied with at least one umpire and scorers were available for most matches. This did, however, require the increased services of a few and Clive Denney, Shahzad Muzaffar & Paul Cawsey were thanked for their commitment and flexibility.

The 2012 executive was re-elected unanimously as follows:

Chairman and Director of Scoring – M. Koshy

Treasurer and Secretary – P. Cawsey

Allocations Manager and Director of Umpiring – A. Mackay

Auditor – I. Bond

Website Manager - R. Thomas

For 2012 swissFOCUS membership fees remained at CHF20 per person, but the meeting voted to raise the fees as of 2013 to CHF25, along with a review of umpiring fees & expense policy.

swissFOCUS intended to raise awareness amongst the cricketing community by increasing the numbers of eNewsletters, a renewed focus on the website (www.swissfocus.org) and using social media such as Facebook.

Lastly, swissFOCUS unveiled the new official swissFOCUS cotton polo shirt (available in M, L, & XL sizes) and a stock of scorebooks, umpire score cards, laws of cricket booklets and John Smith's books, all available from the swissFOCUS shop.