Domestic cricket will soon have an international flavour. Soon there will be foreign umpires in domestic competitions.
Domestic cricket will soon have an international flavour. Soon there will be foreign umpires in domestic competitions. The earliest will be the Duleep Trophy where a foreign umpire will officiate.
This is an exercise aimed at improving the standard of umpiring in India and the quality of umpiring by Indians. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has a bilateral agreement in place with Cricket South Africa (CSA) already. It is soon going to have pacts with Cricket Australia and England and Wales Cricket Board as well.
As part of its agreement with CSA, the BCCI had sent Suresh Shastri to South Africa. India’s international panel umpire was there for about two weeks during which he officiated in two four-day games involving about 14 players of Graeme Smith’s team.
As a reciprocal arrangement, CSA will send umpire Marais Erasmus to officiate in the Duleep Trophy. Erasmus, an international panel umpire, would stand in one semifinal (January-end) and the final (early February) of the competition.
“Our aim is to have an Indian in the ICC’s Elite Panel of umpires,” said Ratnakar Shetty, chief administrative officer of the BCCI. India has not had an umpire in the Elite Panel since the retirement of S Venkataraghavan in 2004 although there have been some in the international panel. Currently there are three — Amish Saheba and SK Tarapore besides Shastri. Venkataraghavan, incidentally, is a paid director of the BCCI umpires committee.
A discussion on the quality of umpiring was held at the working committee meeting on Saturday and it was decided that the Board should send the umpires to officiate in England and Australia as well. From next year, two umpires will be sent and invited.
“This is an important decision. I have come back with a very rich experience,” Shastri, now officiating in the Ranji semifinal in Nagpur, told DNA. “It is like India A team touring a country. You get exposure to the conditions of other countries before actually graduating to the international level.”
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