Graham Cooper

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ECC Umpire Consultant Graham Cooper visited Sofia over the weekend 16-18 April where he ran the ECC Introductory Umpires Course and Exam.

The course was held in the National Sports Academy which houses 3000 students, all who have prowess in one or more sports. At the Academy the children have normal schooling but have the opportunity to train and get competitive experience in their chosen sport. Whilst Graham was there they had a large football tournament taking place along with rugby matches and athletics.

Cricket is relatively new to Bulgaria – the better known bat and ball sport being baseball – and Graham often had to try and equate cricketing terminology to that of baseball in order to try and explain the laws. Only a few of the umpires had a good understanding of English and we were all extremely grateful to Boyan Atanasov for translating Graham’s explanations. Although the course does have a considerable amount of visual material it still requires a certain amount of oral work and so Boyan’s presence was vital to the proceedings.

Eleven umpires started the course on Friday and were keen to learn about the game and the role of the umpire. Several had only just taken up the sport and found it difficult to fully comprehend the vagaries of the English game. However, seven of them took the plunge and manfully sat the exam – the results of which will be known at a later stage.

We wish them all the best for the new cricket season and Bulgaria’s attempts to get cricket on the map.