"IICUS Umpiring Courses given thumbs up!"

IICUS Umpiring courses continue to receive plaudits from around the country. Stuart Fitzgerald from Liverpool, a recent attendee, talks about the outstanding IICUS training qualification...

"I can say without prejudice that I have recently undergone a full IICUS umpiring course (Units 1 and 2) with a view to lending my support to this crucial role in local cricket and I was tremendously impressed and, despite having played the game for over 35 years, have learned an enormous amount about both the Laws and other, equally important aspects of the umpires' role. What I can say, whether or not ECB likes what they do is that IICUS is the only umpiring organisation which teaches anything more than the Laws of the game (and specifically they trained us in fieldcraft - ie man management, conflict management, demeanour etc) and that they are the only umpiring organisation which delivers an internationally recognised IICUS qualification accredited by one of the world's biggest accreditation bodies, in Edexcel. Now as a man who has quite some significant experience of both reading and delivering a range of academic and professional qualifications, I can assure you that when I decided to research umpiring courses, I chose to study under the IICUS banner for these 2 reasons specifically because they are Unique Selling Points of that organisation and they are aspects of their programme which gave me most confidence. 

I know not what IICUS purport to offer in terms of support for clubs in accessing funding and I have no form of affiliation with them as organisations but I do know they delivered an outstanding, well researched and well presented training qualification from which I have personally gained significant benefits in terms of my personal development. Over the 18 week course, my course-mates, many of whom have previously undergone umpiring training under the ACU&S banner, were unanimous in their praise for the course too - clearly stating that it far out-stripped anything they'd done before in their development as umpires."

Stuart St V Fitzgerald