Through courses and training days, women have the opportunity to learn the ropes of cricket umpiring. 

A women-only cricket umpiring course will be held in Goulburn on Monday, December 12, and the Bowral Cricket Club has encouraged women to get involved. 

Earlier this year, Jodi Cooper completed the first female-only umpiring course in Sydney. 

On December 10, Cooper umpired her first match between the Bowral Cavaliers and Bowral Kookaburras at Stephens Park. 

Cooper said she decided to complete the umpiring course to try and push more women into the game. 

“Cricket is a very male dominated sport and I think a lot of women are a bit intimidated by that,” she said. 

“When I was a kid we didn’t have any opportunities like this so it’s great to see that women have the ability to become more involved in the game.” 

The umpiring course will be run by CNSW Umpire Educator/Female Umpire Engagement officer, Claire Polosak, who decided to run the course in response to a survey she conducted. 

“I found that the attitudes to female umpiring, and the biggest barrier to females considering umpiring, is a lack of awareness of umpiring as an opportunity to become, or remain involved in the game,” Ms Polosak said. 

“Cricket Australia has a Community Officiating course that is aimed at people being involved in grassroots cricket. It prepares people for umpiring junior and school cricket.”

The course will comprise of an online module that takes approximately one hour to complete. This needs to be completed prior to attending the workshop.

A three hour face-to-face workshop will then be held.

The course will go into more detail following the online component, as well as strategies and techniques so the participants are confident about coping with the umpiring environment.

The course is nationally recognised, as part of the Cricket Australia accreditation program.

It is currently free for females to complete the course. 

Contact Claire Polosak on 0417 074 458 for more.