Irish umpire Roland Black has flown to England and will be back in action in two four-day matches, as Cricket Ireland have committed to an umpire exchange program with the England and Wales Cricket Board.
Black, who made his umpiring debut in 2006, will be on duty in two games of the Second Eleven Championship 2022- Middlesex vs Hampshire (May 3 to May 6) at Radlett Cricket Club and Nottinghamshire vs Derbyshire (May 9 to May 12) at Notts Sports Club.
Black entered into ICC Associate and Affiliate Umpires Panel in 2016 and is a part of the Irish First-Class umpire panel. He officiated as an umpire at the ICC T20 World Cup Qualifier in 2019, ICC Men's U-19 World Cup in 2020 and ICC Men's U-19 World Cup in 2022.
While Black will feature in the English cricket matches, England's Paul Nicholls will be one of the umpires in the first Inter-Provincial T20 Festival at North Down from 27-29 May 2022 as a part of the exchange.
Before leaving for England, Black lauded the efforts of Cricket Ireland and England and Wales Cricket Board for introducing an exchange program that will bolster the umpiring standards.
"There has been some excellent work undertaken over the winter with the creation of a High Performance Committee for Match Officials, with Cricket Ireland and IACUS striving to strengthen and improve in all areas. One of the targets of this group initially was to create red-ball multi-day opportunities for officials in the longer format. Standing in two four-day games will be a good test and allow me to gain some valuable experience in red ball cricket. I expect that I will be challenged in many different ways and taken out of my comfort zone. Multi-day cricket is a different test - bowlers bowling longer spells, close fielders around the bat, fitness and concentration are especially important - particularly if any of the games goes to the last hour on the fourth day," Black said as quoted in the media release issued by Cricket Ireland.
"As for exchanges, I think they are vital for the development of umpires and scorers at any level, and this is – we hope - the start of Cricket Ireland and ECB working closer together to allow others the same opportunity to benefit from the experience," he further added.
As English umpires will also travel to Ireland under the program, it will only help Ireland's cricket prosper in terms of umpires' development.
"With English umpires coming across to stand in the Inter-Pro's it will be a win-win situation - it will allow other umpires in Ireland the chance to stand and learn from new colleagues, to develop friendships and also to provide the English umpires with a new experience that will be equally beneficial to them."