Indian umpires developing along nicely, thanks to IPL

Indian umpires received a boost last week when Sundaram Ravi became the second from this country after S Venkataraghavan to be selected to the ICC Elite Panel. The umpires are constantly exposed to high pressure games including the Indian Premier League and are looking good, said ICC general manager – cricket, Geoff Allardice.

Talking to a pointed question by dna about how good the Indian umpires were, Allardice said: “The good thing about the Indian umpires is that they are getting very good exposure through the IPL. Under pressure, big crowds, players putting them under pressure, they are developing along nicely. Some of the others have had opportunities at ICC tournaments like the qualifiers and the Under-19 World Cups.

“And we have got a couple coming in the next 12 months with the World Cup qualifiers in Ireland and Scotland in July and the Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh in February 2016. Both these tournaments are used are real pathway tests for umpires, and that helps us a lot in working out who is up next in the pecking order.”

Allardice, a former first-class cricketer from Australia, said that Ravi's selection in the elite panel has been the result of his exposure in the last two or three years to international matches. “He has done two or three Test series under different conditions. He has done ODIs and IPL in India under pressure where he has executed himself well. A very well organised umpire, he has performed well at the 2015 World Cup too. And, he thoroughly deserved his spot on the elite panel.”

Allardice also spoke on other topics concerning today's cricket. Excerpts:

On why an umpire always refers to the TV umpire even if it is a clear case to the naked idea:
Sometimes when you are watching cricket and seeing the first replay, you ask 'why did he look at that'. They might have a suspicion that the bat has bounced. Sometimes, you slide in and the bat comes up and they make sure that the bat was grounded even though the batsman was past the line. Sometimes they are just cautious. That comes with confidence. We always make better decisions the more confident we are and the more practice we get. The philosophy for a long time is that if you have got replays that are going to give a conclusive answer as to whether the batsman is out or not out, that is the same with a bumped balls as well. Then why would you not use the technology to get that decision? They are the decisions that are referred to the third umpire. You could have a philosophy where every decision is taken on the field and then you challenge or review the ones you feel you might not agree with.

On whether umpires are taking more refuge on technology:
We have looked at if umpires have referred unnecessarily. We look at how a third umpire uses technology, does he make his decisions quickly enough, does he ask for too many replays of the same shot, does he communicate badly with the on-field umpires. All of these and if he got it right or not, go into the assessment of a TV umpire. Then the same. It is an indication of the confidence of the on-field umpire. You like seeing a guy who sees a run out and says not out. It is good going.

On meeting the objectives since restructuring FTP a year ago:
The indications are the full member including Zimbabwe and Bangladesh have engaged fully with all of their colleagues and have very comprehensive FTP programmes. There is no one saying 'I am not happy', 'you are not talking to me', etc, etc. There is international cricket being played. What the ICC is looking at is trying to improve the context and the relevance of bilateral cricket and finding ways of doing that. I don't think it is a short term fix. It will take four to five years. The members are talking to each other, talking to us about trying to create more relevance and context for bilateral cricket. We have the odd Test series that have iconic value like the Ashes, and a couple of others. But we need to create that value for all bilateral cricket, say Sri Lanka vs New Zealand, Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh. We need to try and create relevance and context for those. Although we don't have answers to all those, at least we are trying to work on it.