VCA Umpires and Scorers Association (VCAUSA)
Fellowship amongst Cricket Umpires and Scorers
THE 2025/26 COMMITTEE
President: Vivek Kumar
Viv joined the Cricket Victoria (CV) umpiring panel in the 2014-15 season and has since officiated in over 200 CV matches, including more than 60 2nd XI fixtures and 2 Women’s Premier First Eleven games. Highlights of his CV journey so far are his involvement in 5 CV Premier Grand Finals across different grades and officiating on-field in 4 of them.
Before joining the CV panel, Viv built a strong foundation in community cricket umpiring, serving competitions such as the VTCA, DDCA, and Queensland Premier Cricket. He has also been an active contributor to the umpiring community through VCAUSA, where he has served on the Committee of Management for the past four years and is now in his 2nd term as President. In recognition of his dedication, Viv was honoured with the prestigious Robin Bailhache Award in 2024 by the VCAUSA for his outstanding service and commitment to umpiring.
Away from cricket, Viv is passionate about teaching at RMIT University. He also enjoys travelling, trekking, and exploring diverse cultures. Blessed with a supportive family, Viv credits his wife Amrutha - despite her good-humoured indifference to cricket, as his pillar of strength. Their 9-year-old son has recently begun developing his own interest in the game, much to Viv’s delight.
Vice President: Damian Herft
Damian joined the CV Umpiring Panel in 1999 and umpired a total of 397 matches, 298 of them in Premier Cricket and 239 of those in 1st Grade. With 200+ 1st XI matches, Damian is a member of the prestigious CV200 Club. Prior to joining the CV Umpiring Panel, Damian umpired one season in Sub-District Cricket and one in Dandenong District Cricket Association and before joining the Premier Cricket Panal. Damian also played Community Cricket for 20 seasons, primarily with Moonee Ponds Cricket Club, where he was elected to Life Membership in 1992. Damian retired from on-field umpiring at the end of season 2016-17 and was a Cricket Australia Match Referee from 2017-2020, overseeing 52 Cricket Australia matches. After that role, Damian was the CV State Umpire Development Coach and Umpire Selector, and continued that for 5 years, until November 2024.
Damian previously worked for Telstra for 38 years and now works for Cricket Australia with our National Teams. He has been on the VCAUSA Committee since 2017, and was also awarded the prestigious VCAUSA Robin Bailhache Committment Award in 2018. Damian is now primarily responsible for the maintenance of the VCAUSA Website and for planning of the Annual Presentation Awards Dinner. He enjoys sunset photography and is also the photographer for most VCAUSA Events. Damian is married to Caroline, and they have one adult son, who is not interested in cricket.​
Secretary: Gerry Schembri
Gerry joined the CV umpires’ panel in 2006 and has umpired over 320 Premier matches since then. Prior to joining the CV Panel, Gerry spent one season umpiring in the Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association after a twenty-year absence from the game due to family and business commitments. Gerry is a life member of the VCAUSA and has served on the Committee of Management in various roles since 2009 and is icommencing his 14th term on the Committee. He is a former Vice President of the Association, and is commencing his 9th term as our Association Secretary, commencing that role 2017. Gerry is also passionate about the biennial Easter Event with SACUSA and has been the Easter convenor since 2011. He has already commenced planning for 2027 Easter, he also assists as the co-liaison with Cricket Victoria, and helping plan for the Annual Presentation Awards Dinner.
Outside of cricket, Gerry has worked in various professional accountant roles and is married to Sylvie and has two adult children. The 2025-26 season will again present plenty of challenges for our Association and Gerry is confident that the new committee of management is able and willing to represent our members in the season ahead.
Treasurer: Jeff Diamond-Smith
Jeff's love affair with cricket started a long time ago. remembering waking up in the middle of the night and hiding under the bed to listen to the ABC broadcast of either the Ashes or the West Indies tour, on his transistor radio. Jeff had an underwhelming career on the field as a right-hand, opening batsman and a left-arm Chinaman bowler. and made a couple of centuries but J Grade on the mats isn’t exactly the MCG! When family commitments and a bad back curtailed a floundering career, Jeff decided that he wanted to stay involved and took up umpiring. He spent 11 seasons with the VTCA officiating in 10 Grand Finals and met such luminaries such as Paul Jensen and Bob Parry. At the end of the 2006-7 season Jeff decided to further his umpiring career and joined the Cricket Victoria panel and he is still enjoying it 16 years later. He gets great support from his wife, Leanne, and three children, who are all now in their 20s, and who know that their father won’t be around the house in Summer on a Saturday and the occasional Sunday. Upon retirement, Jeff took up volunteer work, under the guidance of the late VCAUSA President Alan McCarthy, and tour guiding at the MCG. He now uses his experience as Treasurer on the Committee of Management of the VCAUSA, where he is in his 3rd term.
Committee Member: Louise Broadfoot
Louise joined the Cricket Victoria Premier Umpiring panel in the 2024/25 season, having moved back to Melbourne after a long stint based in Queensland. Her first (and only) Victorian club as a player was Melbourne-Tooronga in the pre-Premier Cricket era, and she played in the first iteration of the WNCL in 1996. She played 113 WNCL games for Victoria and Queensland, as well as 2 Test matches and 10 ODI matches for Australia, before retiring in 2010. After a break from the game, she returned to cricket via coaching with the ACA, and as a board member with Mackay Cricket, from where she takes great pride in seeing international matches being played at the Great Barrier Reef Arena.
Louise joins the VCAUSA Committee this year, primarily as our Child Safety Officer, as will assist with Law 43 content.
Outside cricket, Louise was a police officer with the Victoria Police and Queensland Police Service from 2001 to 2021, and joined the Integrity team at Tennis Australia after leaving the police. She remains an active member of the Australian Army Reserve, and plans to keep balancing work, cricket, Army and life commitments for as long as possible.
Committee Member: Mani Sundaram
Mani joined the CV Umpiring Panel and the VCAUSA in 2024/25. He started cricket umpiring with the South East Cricket Association (SECA) in 2023-24, and then followed by umpiring in the Mid Year Cricket Association (MYCA). ​
He joins the VCAUSA Committee this year, assisting on the Social Events sub-committee and with Social Media/Website Content.
Outside of cricket, Mani is employed as an ICT Engineer with NAB. He is married to Meenakshi and they have 2 sons.
Committee Member: Jamie Wyatt
Jamie joined the VCAUSA and CV Umpiring Panel in the 2000-01 season after umpiring in the Sub-District Cricket Association the previous year. Following three seasons as an umpire, he stepped back due to a change in work commitments and returned to playing, spending the next 11 years competing in the Bendigo and Mercantile Cricket Associations.
In the 2014-15 season, Jamie rejoined the CV Panel and has since officiated in 271 Premier matches across all grades. His involvement in the Easter Crockett Shield has been equally notable - starting as 12th man in 2001, playing in 2015, 2017, and 2019, and captaining the team in 2023 and 2025.
Jamie joined the VCAUSA committee in the 2021-22 season and served as Association Vice President from 2022-2025. He remains an active and dedicated contributor to cricket and to the VCAUSA and his focus this year is with the Association's Social Media.
Jamie is married to Rebecca and they have three children
Committee Member: Sri Velamur
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Committee Member: Mark Philipson
Mark began playing cricket for Banyule cricket club before spending time at other senior clubs. He played for 30 years at Coles Myer Cricket Club and played in 2 premierships. He was also the President of the Club and was made a Life Member.
Mark has been umpiring for 10 years, 5 years in the Mercantile Association before joining the Premier Panel in 2021/22, and in his career as a Premier Cricket Panel Umpire, he has umpired 2 Premier Cricket Grand Finals to-date.
Mark joins the VCAUSA Committee this year, and his primary role is that of the Stock Controller of the Association's Medals, Badges and Accessories. Outside of cricket, Mark is married to Kate and has 2 children
Committee Member: Robert Pryde
Rob is in his third year on the Premier Cricket Umpiring Panel after 3 years umpiring in the TDCA (Traralgon District Cricket Association). After moving from Traralgon to Melbourne with his wife Tara, Rob chose to challenge his umpiring abilities and join the panel and has thoroughly enjoyed his time as a Panel Umpire and a member of the VCAUSA.
This year he commences his 2nd term on the Committee of the VCAUSA, with a primary focus on the Finance/Sponsorship sub-committee and with strengthening the bonds between umpires through social cricket and the othe rmany great social events put on by the VCAUSA
Committee Member: Jay Blanchard Lewis
As a Brit raised in Spain, Jay had an unusual route into Victorian Cricket, but has had a great few seasons so far. Jay has been umpiring cricket since 2012, starting at club level and within schools, then starting to take appointments within UK county (Cambridgeshire) and moving up the leagues. In addition to league fixtures, Jay umpired University matches (the highlight of these being the Oxford vs Cambridge Varsity Match, with a decent crowd of spirited undergraduates heckling both teams), as well as juniors and seniors across all age ranges. Jay's first three months living in Australia incorporated umpiring 17 matches across rural Victoria and Melbourne, learning as much about rural Victoria and about local cricket regulations.
Outside the world of cricket, Jay teaches English, Spanish, Literature, Humanities, and Latin, plays and umpires hockey, and goes for long hikes in nature. Jay has an Australian brother, Will, and is being educated on footy and being taken to games. This is Jay's 2nd term on the VCAUSA Committee, the focus being on the Law 43 Newsletter and on Social Events.
Scorer Representative: Mike Ringham
Mike started scoring at school in England in 1947. He had a short break in 1954 when he became the Chef’s Writer on the R.M.S. ”Himalaya”. In 1955 he met a passenger on a blind date, got engaged on their fifth date and migrated to Melbourne and married his sweetheart, Margaret, in 1956. They had two daughters, Joanne, the oncology nurse at Rosebud Hospital and Susan, a dental assistant in Melbourne. They also had two sons, Matthew and Adam.
Mike joined the Essendon Cricket Club as 2nd XI scorer in 1956 and became the 1st XI scorer in 1960 and joined the First-class panel in 1964. A move to the M.C.C. took place in 1975 where Mike took over the 1st XI as well as the duties of Club Statistician, which he has continued for the past 49 years. Mike stood down from scoring in 1991 due to promotion as Schedule Planning Manager at Ansett Airlines. He retired 1996 due to Margaret’s ill health and was able to take up his pen again. Another break came in 2010 when they moved to Rosebud, where Margaret passed away in 2017.
The Beaumaris complex opened in 2018 and Mike was able to resumed his scoring with the 3rd and 4th XI’s. In 2019 he transferred to the Women’s Seconds and the Women’s Under 18 Teams. Since he resumed scoring in 1956, he has scored nearly 1200 matches, including 40 Test Matches and travelled to England for the 2nd and 3rd World Cup Competitions as well as the 1985 Ashes Tour. This year, Mike commences his 3rd term on the VCAUSA Committee, but he has been trying to instigate a Scorer training system since the 1980, with a view to train scorers in the fundamental rules of scoring, and to familiarise them with the Laws that affect scoring. He has finally succeeded with his ambition and ran the first scorer “Education Session”, with the support of Cricket Victoria, on 28th August 2024, with a further session planned