Cricket has long been a national community-based institution, but with changing times and a recent upsurge of interest in the game, an interesting new opportunity for cricket-minded mature and active people has emerged.

With over 9000 amateur cricket clubs in England and Wales alone, and some 200,000 players of all ages and sexes, keeping a handle on training, rules and maintaining good standards of ‘professionalism’ is a big task – which is where the new Institute of Cricket Umpires and Scorers (ICUS) comes in.

ICUS has been set up to safeguard and support the game: its laws, training, assessment, appraisal – even new areas in education such as communication and man-management skills. In short, helping ‘amateurs’ to be much more ‘professional’ in training, outlook and manner. Let’s face it, almost all cricketers are, or were, recreational cricketers themselves, so getting it right at ground level is vital.

ICUS in the UK and Ireland will be run through fourteen geographical regions, and each needs a dynamic Regional Director. Their job will not just be to look after the interests of ICUS members in that region, but recruit new ones. Which in turn means establishing good relations with the myriad of community cricket clubs, setting up and administering umpire and scorer training courses, and finding and servicing the needs of local sponsors.

Although not full-time, the Regional Director posts are a wonderful opportunity. The role needs maturity, commitment and energy – ideally suited to the early, or recently retired. Each Regional Director will receive a salary commensurate with the time involved.

The job means real community involvement, because cricket in the community also involves thousands of people who are not players themselves. Just picture a traditional summer’s cricket match - it’s a family thing. The kids come along and play their own ballgames behind the pavilion. Mums, dads, friends and grandparents make the tea, run the bar, collect the subscriptions, keep the score, and umpire the match.

And although cricket has worldwide appeal it is at heart a curiously English invention - particularly in its governance. ‘Rules’ for cricket began c.1700, though the earliest set was not written down until 1744, on the instructions of the ‘noblemen and gentlemen’ that played the game at the Artillery Ground in London.

In 1787 the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) was formed and, in the following year, issued the first Code of Cricket Laws. And today, the MCC is still the custodian of the game’s Laws – Laws that ICUS, with it’s new Regional Directors will strive to maintain.

So if you think you have what it takes to put something back into our national summer game, please email info@icusl.org and tell us why.

Institute of Cricket Umpires and Scorers XLII