Now, Anurag to do umpiring in BCCI’s ties
LUCKNOW: It was a big day for Uttar Pradesh cricket as after a gap of 11 years, Anurag Thakur from Ghaziabad passed the Level-II umpires’ examination of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Friday with a good percentage.
A civil engineer by profession, Anurag (25), secured 90.5 per cent mark and will now be seen officiating in junior matches in domestic cricket.
“It’s like a dream come true. Ever since I passed the state panel examination in 2013, I was looking for this success,” Anurag said.
“I always wanted to be active in the game as it was my passion which inspired me to take up umpiring in local cricket even when I was pursuing civil engineering,” said Anurag.
He is the second person from the state to make it to this level after Satish Gupta from Kanpur.
Anurag’s colleague in the state panel, Sandeep Shukla from Allahabad, missed out the Level-II qualification by a big margin as he could secure 78.50 per cent marks. The pass percentage for the examination is over 90 per cent.
A native of Kanpur, Anurag migrated to Ghaziabad almost 11 years back.
He admitted that his education, especially proficiency in writing and speaking English, helped him achieve success.
“I do agree that my education, especially English, helped me a lot in passing the BCCI examination. In fact, my father wanted to put me in studies, but I kept my interest in umpiring too,” said Anurag, who played cricket at the local level during his stay in Kanpur.
Kanpur’s Satish Gupta, who is the only umpire from UP to have officiated in international matches, had made his debut in a Pepsi Cup match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka at Jameshdpur in 1999. He also did on-field umpiring in just five ODIs till 2002 before standing in his last match between India and Zimbabwe in Hyderabad in 2002.
“Anurag’s achievement is quite big and encouraging for cricketers in the state. Youngsters should draw inspiration from Anurag and try to come up to that level as umpiring is quite an entertaining as well as difficult job,” said Gupta.
The record of UP umpires at the BCCI exams isn’t good. In all 17 candidates passed the Level-1 exam conducted by the BCCI in 2010. They then appeared in the grading exam at Nagpur the same year, but only three of them —SP Singh, Tarun Kapoor and Sandeep Shukla — could complete the Level-1 refresher course with Grade A.
However, the trio failed in the final written exam of Level II in 2011 and 2013.
In 2011, 25 new faces from the state appeared for the BCCIbacked Level-1 exam in Kanpur but all of them failed.
So far as scorers in the BCCI panel are concerned, UP holds a lot of presence. Currently, UPCA has seven scorers, including SP Singh, AP Singh, Ramji Tewari, Akhilesh Tripathi, veteran Saurabh Chaturvedi, Vikas Pandey and Prashant Chaturvedi.
A CIVIL ENGINEER BY PROFESSION, ANURAG (25), SECURED 90.5 PER CENT MARK AND WILL NOW BE SEEN OFFICIATING IN JUNIOR MATCHES IN DOMESTIC CRICKET