The honoured umpire: Staying faithful sees Allan gains recognition
Years of dedication and hard work have seen Southland’s Allan Faithful rewarded with honorary membership by Otago Cricket.
Faithful organises the umpires for cricket matches throughout Central Otago and Southland on a weekly basis.
His role as Otago Cricket regional training officer involved travel and long hours over summer, but the effort was worth it when umpires progressed up the ranks, he said.
“It’s nice to get the rewards, but it’s all about helping those around you and helping them be the best they can. The most joy you get is from seeing them progress.”
It’s a fitting reward for Faithful, who said the membership caught him by surprise.
“I didn’t know anything about it until I received an email from Otago Cricket’s Mike Coggan.
“I was surprised to be honest. It’s like the icing on the cake.
”I have picked up a few awards over the years, but I guess it’s nice people are taking notice.”
Faithful took on the regional training officer role with Otago Cricket in 2010.
“So that sees me working with all the grassroots umpires from Oamaru south really.”
He travelled around the district as much as possible to run training sessions, but the focus had shifted away from what it used to be.
”When I was umpiring, it was about teaching people about the law. Now it’s more personnel management, middle management and match management. You are still covering law stuff because there is always something that happens which you aren’t sure of, but just not to the same extent.”
Over the years, he has helped many umpires progress through the ranks, including Otago’s Shaun Haig, who has gone on to international duties, Kannan Jagannathan, Niel Louw, Central Otago’s James Blunt and Southland pair Pete Pasco and Mike Potter, who are now eligible for New Zealand Cricket (NZC) appointments, having progressed from club level.
“It’s good that I have been involved with all these guys, but they put in a lot of hard work and want to succeed.”
Within the last three years, NZC has improved their promotion of umpires from around New Zealand and Faithful said that’s helped him in his role.
”Ten years ago it was a battle to get your umpires outside their local area to officiate a match. Now they have created a better pathway and acted on it the past few years. It will continue to get better as there are plans in place to improve it.”
Faithful, a former Hawke Cup level umpire, was a key figure in the association introducing an assessment programme for the umpires at representative level.
”It’s really helped the umpires – the oneon-one coaching and having someone watch them at their games and passing on feedback.”
He still enjoyed the role, and said there were enough positives to keep him motivated for some time yet.
”It’s a passion that has become an addiction.”
A life member of the Southland Cricket Association, Faithful also represented the province as a Hawke Cup cricketer.