Saturday morning was a departure from the cricket skills for Yolanda, Jonathan, Maz and Dan as they facilitated a three hour ‘Officiating and Scoring Workshop’ for 15 teenage players from the national teams at the Cricket Brasil Sports Gymnasium. Language barriers were broken with the translating help of Alemão, smatterings of Portuguese from the volunteers and some slightly over-the-top demonstrations from Yolanda.
Everyone had a go at umpiring, scoring and playing while Jonathan bowled. He recorded his worst figures ever as Yolanda demanded front foot no-balls, wides and beamers. The initial shyness of calling ‘wide’ and ‘no ball’ were overcome as the practice developed and a final demonstration over was ably bowled by Sara while Jonathan and Yolanda umpired. We are not sure how much attention was paid to the umpiring due to the fun of trying to hit Sara for 6!
The final hour was a game where all participants umpired and scored two overs each, as well as having a bat, a bowl and helping in the outfield/hall. Of course, given a bat and a ball these excellent players were soon taking wickets, hitting sixes and shouting “Howzat” – although Yolanda’s appeals were still definitely the loudest, even from cover – and the umpires withstood the onslaught, made decisions with authority and ably communicated with the scorers.
Arbitragem e Pontuação – Brazilian style!
In parallel, Lee, Jo and Thom walked the 2.5 miles to the Cricket Brasil training site, commonly called “CT” to catch up on project admin and experience the senior squad training sessions, the women in the nets, the men undertaking circuits of fielding drills. Jo was able to to ‘turn her arm’ with some success, training alongside and with full inclusion and acceptance of the squad, and all in the first day of sunshine we’d seen since our arrival.
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