Sir, I can categorically deny any suggestion that county cricket scorers are talking about forming a trade union (report, Sport, Nov 4). Keith Booth, the Surrey scorer, suggested it many years ago and was laughed out of court then. His complaints about organisation at the Oval Twenty20 World Cup in June reflect mainly on his employers at the Oval and no one else.

I helped out at Trent Bridge for a day and obtained my accreditation as I arrived and was paid for my services within three weeks, simply because the Trent Bridge staff did their preparatory work efficiently. What was wrong was that at all three World Cup grounds, the scorers and umpires/referees were kept rigidly apart at all times when for domestic cricket, Test matches and one-day internationals the scorers and umpires form a team to ensure that all happens as it should, as the laws decree. They do this by meeting before, during and after the match and in modern times by use of radio communication. David Kendix’s paper for the ICC was more concerned with this important shortcoming during the Twenty20 World Cup than the more unimportant matters on which he was quoted.

If his paper does not bring future ICC tournaments into line with Tests/ODIs, we shall clearly have some arguing to do. In the meantime, I suggest we wait to see how the ICC responds to Mr Kendix’s suggestions.

Alan West
Scorer, Lancashire CCC, and Chairman, Association of County Cricket Scorers

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