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This episode features the first installment of my chat with cricket umpire Martin Wale.

We begin with a bit of onomatology! Quite a departure for us. We then get on to more familiar territory, talking about Martin’s growing up in Coventry and getting to watch Warwickshire CCC at the Corthaulds Ground in the city.

Martin talks about his love of the detail of what goes on on a cricket field, stumpings v run outs, the lbw rule and so on. Martin can thank his wife for getting him involved in umpiring, prompting him to approach the South Wales Cricket Association in 2004. He used to watch games at the Mumbles Cricket Club as well as visiting St Helens.

Martin talks about his mentor Huw Rees who stood with him for the whole of his first season of umpiring. Huw sadly passed away in recent times, but Martin remembers him fondly. Leighton James was playing in his first game as an umpire and Martin gave him out first ball lbw. He talks about how conflicted he felt about making that decision.

Martin goes on to talk about what he feels about umpiring. In particular, he focuses on the ‘man management’ involved in umpiring and the team working involved in umpiring.

Before talking about the Over 60s World Cup, Martin relates the story of his involvement in the Over 50s World Cup in South Africa in 2020. The Tournament was abandoned half way through the first round of games as the Soth African Government declared their lock down. Martin and some members of his family were amongst the last few people to leave the country and returned back to a country that was 10 days into its first national lockdown. An incredible part of his story.

Martin talks about the setting up of the International Masters Cricket organization and the ‘regularizing’ of international seniors cricket. This included the setting up of IMCUP (International Masters Cricket Umpires Panel). It was as a member of this panel that Martin found out about the Over 60s World Cup in Chennai earlier this year.

Those interested in finding out about Masters Cricket can link to the ICM website here:

https://masterscricket.org/o60swc-2024/

Much of the preparation for going to India took place through a WhatsApp group. Martin talked us through some of the things that were discussed here. He relates his excitement about what lay ahead.

We then talk about the tournament organisation and the surprising revelation that the umpires did not know which game they were going to officiate in until the evening before the game. Martin talked about some of the travel arrangements to and from the grounds.

We hear about Martin’s impressions of Chennai which was, in his words, ‘chaotic, noisy, and dusty’:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chennai

He then describes getting around in the ubiquitous Tuk Tuk’s:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto_rickshaw

He’s overall impressions of the people were that they were very welcoming and friendly. Martin discovered Dosa’s. See here for more details:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dosa_(food)

We finish this part of our chat with Martin running through some of the details of the umpiring organisation at the tournament including the arrangements for coping with the heat and humidity prevailing across the City.