Scorers oppose ECB analyst plans

By Paul Bolton, County News Correspondent

County scorers are opposing plans by the England and Wales Cricket Board to do without away team scorers and replace them with analysts from sports data company Opta.

Opta clinched a contract to become the ECB’s official score service last winter and had their own scorers in attendance at county matches throughout the season. But the Opta system is still in its infancy and all 18 first-class counties have continued to employ their own scorers, most of whom are an engaged on small honorariums rather than salaries.

Scorers also fulfil other duties, such as providing information for county year books, acting as baggage master and controlling the players’ meal allowances, and they are regarded as valuable members of  county back room staff.

But the ECB are keen to promote Opta as the official score service of county cricket and are concerned that there were discrepancies between the Opta scores and those produced by county scorers last season.

On many county grounds there is limited space in scorers’ rooms which has meant that Opta analysts have had to work from other parts of the ground with limited communication with the officials scorers.

The ECB, through umpires and scorers manager Chris Kelly, have now approached the first-class scorers asking them to consider changes which would mean a reduction in the number of scorers present at county matches.

Instead, the ECB would like the home scorer and an operative to be appointed as the official scorers for each county match, meaning that visiting counties would no longer be required to send their scorer.

The ECB suggestion has met with strong opposition from county scorers, who lost out financially when the Press Association, for whom they had also worked since 2001, lost the ECB score service contract last winter.

“So far as we are concerned Opta has so far concentrated on making sure they can score properly, so next year we presume that they are going to start providing the more detailed service about each ball, where it pitches and what it does, which was promised when they took over the service. Until they have done that we don’t see why anything needs to happen,” said Alan West, chairman of the county scorers.

“No doubt some counties will be tempted not to send their scorer to away matches because they will see it as a chance to save some money but county scorers do other things, particularly on away trips, that help the team. We have told the ECB that we do not see any reason for not having an away scorer at all matches.”

The issue is expected to be debated by county scorers at their annual meeting in Derby at the end of the month. In the meantime negotiations with the ECB will continue. “We have made a number of suggestions to the scorers aimed at ensuring the score on the board is the right one,” Kelly said.


Date: 10/10/2012 07:00:00 by Paul Bolton
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