About ECB ACO

The ECB Association of Cricket Officials (ACO) represents scorers and umpires for and on behalf of the national governing body, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

ECB ACO is the membership organisation responsible for the recruitment, training and development of all cricket officials.

It has a separate board that works with the executive to run the association.  It works at national, regional and county level to have a direct link with its individual members.

As well as providing a fun, rewarding way to engage with the sport, training as an official is a great way to support the health of the game.  You don’t need any previous experience or qualifications – just a willingness to learn.  Whatever level you aspire to, whatever pace you wish to learn at, our education programme has a pathway for you.

History of ECB ACO

The Association of Cricket Umpires and Scorers, commonly known as ACU&S, was set up in 1953 by the umpire, Tom Smith, as the Association of Cricket Umpires; scorers were included in the title several years later.  Tom was its first Chairman and its first president was Douglas Jardine.  It had a membership exceeding 8,000 in countries all over the world before it was merged with the ECB Officials Association in 2007 to form the ECB Association of Cricket Officials (ECB ACO).

ECB ACO is currently the largest group of cricket officials in the world, with almost 8,500 members.