Umpiring vision in dire need of clarity
More matches have resulted in fatigue, which in turn has caused controversies due to bad decisions
Saurashtra’s Ranji Trophy semi-final win over Karnataka saw Cheteshwar Pujara let-off twice, highlighting umpiring mistakes that have marred this Ranji Trophy season. Overworked officials blamed on the cricket Board’s planning are not helping the cause.
Domestic matches have seen an almost two-fold increase from last season but the number of umpires has remained the same. This has left many of them fatigued, and cricket officials and umpires, past and present, are not surprised at the incidents and complaints of poor umpiring in the quarter-finals and semi-finals. The BCCI’s Committee of Administrators added nine teams to the domestic cricket roster last July, raising the number of matches from around 1,000 last season to 2,017. But it doesn’t seem to have taken into account the burden it puts on the umpires.
SUFFICIENT WARNING
The Supreme Court directed BCCI in February 2016 to implement the Lodha recommendations in full. Despite resistance over tenure, age and voting rights from administrators, there was little opposition to adding more states, which includes women’s and age-group cricket.
Despite the two years it had, BCCI didn’t plan umpiring schedules, or tweak a non-practical retirement age of 55 for some sections of the umpires, leaving the available 120-odd umpires overburdened.
Umpire Khaled Saiyed, who erred in not giving Pujara out -some M Chinnaswamy Stadium spectators called the Australia series batting hero a cheat for not ‘walking’ -- had stood in nine Ranji league games on the trot and got a break only during the quarter-final week.
Saiyed, and some like K Srinath of Tamil Nadu, have been on the road non-stop this season, doing 10 of 11 rounds, unlike last season when most got a break of a couple of rounds. Srinath, a former Ranji batsman, stood in 10 games on the trot before being rested for the semis.
NO BREAK
Many top umpires are also burdened
with age-group games with no break. Sudhir Asnani and Sanjay Hazare completed the Punjab-Himachal Ranji game in Mohali on December 9 and made a dash for the Himachal town of Una – around 140km away -- the same day to stand in a U-19 game between Himachal
and Chhattisgarh that started the next day. They were among 40 umpires who officiated for eight days at a stretch.
A top umpire on an average would have officiated 60-70 days this season, compared to 40-45 days the last season. Not many complain about the opportunities, but agree it is taxing, and can affect concentration.
There are 20 umpires in BCCI’s top bracket – Group A -and 25 in Group B.
These groups usually handle the senior games. There are 35 in Group C, while the rest mostly inexperienced officials are in Group D.
Earlier, only Groups D and Group C umpires were posted for women’s and junior games. This season, senior umpires had to stand more frequently in the ‘lesser’ games.
In turn, more Group C umpires were posted for Ranji games.
This saw former India skipper Sourav Ganguly, the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) president, lash out at BCCI.
EARLY RETIREMENTS
Says a former international umpire on condition of anonymity: “Umpiring has been given the short shrift. Though BCCI has increased the umpires’ allowances in recent times, which is a good step, it has failed to remove a clause which forces umpires to retire at 55. When match referees retire at 60, and there has been so much fight over Board officials’ retirement age, why should umpires be asked to quit so early?”
As per Board policy, the retirement age is 55 (for those who have officiated in firstclass), 58 (those who stood in ODIs) and 60 (those who have stood in Tests as well).
“Umpires come into their own with experience -- in England, they can officiate County games till 65. Here too they should increase the age,” says K Bharatan, a former umpire.
A rule tweak a few years ago forces umpires to retire on the date of superannuation, regardless of where the season stood. It has led to many seasoned umpires leaving mid-season.
Bharatan retired on January 5 last year though the domestic season was far from over with 12 events, including some women’s competitions, yet to take place. Former India stumper Sadanand Viswanath and Umesh Dubey retired as umpires in November and December 2017 respectively, though the season had just begun.
Bharatan officiated for 10 years and his colleagues say he had become an asset with his experience, having also played Ranji for Railways before taking up umpiring. But the retirement rule was strictly enforced.
“The least BCCI could have done was give these guys, and many others, extension once more teams were added. There are many others who have retired (abruptly) over the last 8-10 years due to this clause,” says the ex-international umpire.
Faced with the enormity of the situation, BCCI has been forced to make exceptions at the last moment for some who faced retirement mid-season. Sudhir Asnani, for example, was due to retire on December 7 when he turned 58, but was kept on the roster. He did a couple of Ranji games in January.
There has been talk to raise the retirement age of umpires over the last few years. Umpires have made proposals time and again but there has been no response from BCCI. The move gained momentum when former board treasurer Ravi Sawant headed the umpires’ sub-committee between 2013-2015. Once he went and CK Khanna took over as panel chief, the issue died down.
BCCI MUM
That committee is now defunct. BCCI GM (Cricket Operations) Saba Karim and AGM (Cricket Operations) KVP Rao run the show with the latter dealing with the appointment of umpires.
Rao did not answer calls and Karim refused to speak on the matter saying he isn’t authorised to comment. An ex-BCCI office-bearer blamed the impasse on the absence of subcommittees with just the twomember CoA, besides the GM and AGM, handling the affairs.