Top umpire award for former Durham batsman Gough (From The Northern Echo)

Top umpire award for former Durham batsman Gough

9:00am Wednesday 21st September 2011 in Durham CCC By Nick Loughlin

MICHAEL Gough, the former Durham opening batsman, has been named the Umpire of the Year by the Professional Cricketers' Association.

Now aged 31, Gough fell out of love with playing the game and retired in 2003. Three years later he took charge of his first Second XI game.

Tomorrow night, in London he will be presented with the honour, voted for by his fellow umpires and cricketers.

The award caps a memorable summer for the Hartlepool-born former England under-19 skipper, who officiated in the Twenty20 finals day and was fourth official at the recent England v India T20 game at Old Trafford.

"To get the award so early in my umpiring career is brilliant. I've just got to make sure I build on it now, keep progressing, and working hard in the future,'' he reflected.

Gough's aim is to officiate in Test Match cricket and, with a thorough support ECB structure around him, he has taken the first steps to reaching his aim.

"The whole umpiring structure is brilliant, especially since our manager, Chris Kelly came in, everything is more professional,'' he said.

"He has worked closely with rugby and football referees to see how they work. We have mentors, observations, coaches and the standard is improving - I feel we have the best umpires in the world because of the amount of cricket we play in all different formats.

"My mentor is David Constant, before that it was Merv Kitchen and David Byas - he hadn't umpired before, came at it from a different angle and wanted to help from a captain's point of view, which was a big benefit.

"I played with a lot of players on the county circuit now. But regardless of if you know them or not it's about building up and earning mutual respect.

"They have to respect the job you do, and you have to respect them for the job they are doing.''

There's not only respect between Gough and some of the players he is overseeing, there's a friendship too.

He progressed through the Emirates Durham ICG playing ranks with plenty of them and admitted: "I must have had Durham three or four times this year. I turn up and get on great with the lads, I've always had a great relationship with them, but once you walk out there, it's about having a job to do.

"It's about being professional. A lot of the lads at Durham were those who I came through the ranks with - Muchall, Plunkett, Mustard and they have done brilliant with their careers and it's always nice to go back and catch up with them.''

While they stuck around and remain integral parts of the first-team squad, Gough left them behind.

But there's not an ounce of regret and Gough has been selected for a month-long trip to India this winter to officiate in a different environment, perhaps it's a dry run for Test matches.

"To be honest things have gone rapidly and I believe if you are dedicated and passionate with your job then it becomes a lot easier,'' he admitted.

"I think like in anything in life, if you want it bad enough you will work hard towards it and since I realised I didn't want to be a cricketer my goal was to be an international umpire.

"I've had a taste of it this summer and it was a proud moment, one I didn't expect. But I turned up, was open minded and was there to learn from Rob Bailey and Richard Illingworth - the two who I umpired the T20 finals with too.

"To get the nod alongside them both and be involved was brilliant - I watched and learned plenty from them.

"The aim is Test cricket, that's always been the case. I've just to keep improving and get well-established in the domestic game.

"It's nice to get these awards and accolades, but it's down to the guys around me and the others umpires to learn from.''