Cricket South Africa (CSA) held a four-day conference for it's match officials in Gauteng as the country return's to domestic cricket.
The conference covered all aspects of the match officials' role with the participants writing exams on specific subjects.
The match officials were also exposed to the more practical aspects such as the latest developments in television technology as well as dealing with the mental issues surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic.
CSA revealed in a press release that the officials will enter in the same bio-bubble as the players when the 4-Day Franchise Series gets underway on 2 November.
"The mental issues of the new normal is something that we have to deal with in a pro-active manner," said CSA Director of Cricket Graeme Smith.
"It is a very important part of our planning for the season ahead. We benefited from extremely valuable input from sports psychologist Dr. Dawn Saunders.
"I am very happy to report that our match officials without exception returned negative tests with our medical team at the start of the conference and I congratulate them all for the responsible attitude they are bringing to the fore in these difficult times."
One of the highlights of the conference was the virtual session with England umpire Michael Gough, who spoke about the route he followed and its challenges in making it successfully to the ICC elite panel of umpires.
"This sort of interaction is incredibly valuable to our match officials," added Smith.
"They were also able to draw on the inspirational input from Marais Erasmus, our own representative on the ICC elite panel, who was able to relate his experiences at the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup final.
"Marais is a wonderful role model to all our umpires. It was fitting that he presented the official CSA black blazers to the two umpires recently promoted to our first-class panel, Abongile Sodumo and Mazizi Gampu."
CSA First-Class Panel: Murray Brown, Mazizi Gampu, Siphelele Gasa, Lubabalo Gcuma, Shaun George, Stephen Harris, Ryan Hendricks, Adrian Holdstock, Arno Jacobs, Bongani Jele, Tom Mokorosi, Allahudien Paleker, Dennis Smith, Abdoellaah Steenkamp, Abongile Sodumo, Philip Vosloo, Brad White
CSA Reserve List Panel: Lauren Agenbag, Rudi Birkenstock, Gawie Botha, Jannie Erasmus, Gladman Gaseba, Marlon Jansen, Kevin Lawrence, Sinethemba Mjekula, Bongani Ntshebe, Jurie Sadler, Godwin von Willingh
CSA Match Referees: Shandre Fritz, Devdas Govindjee, Barry Lambson, Zama Ndamane, Laurence Matroos, Gerrie Pienaar, Shaid Wadvalla
- Compiled by Sport24 staff