India board sends its umpires back to school
NEW DELHI: It is not just dismissals and other technicalities that umpires have to learn by heart. The Indian cricket board now wants them to mug up the English language.
Flush with cash, it seems the world’s richest board is finding new ways of spending its resources. The latest is schooling its umpires in the language. With S Ravi making the Elite Panel, ending India’s 11-year absence from the top league of international umpires, it has dawned on the BCCI that umpires need to communicate better.
The initiative, which is to begin from Thursday in Mumbai, will have a group of 20 umpires taking lessons from a British Council trainer for the next 10 days.
Although there are doubts on what will be taught in such a short period, some senior umpires are pleased.
Former umpire SK Bansal, who coached at the BCCI umpires’ academy in Nagpur for three years, praised the move. During his stint as train- er, he encountered trainees from some states who couldn’t communicate. “The problem is compounded when you have to communicate with foreign players. It is not just the language, sometimes the accent also becomes a problem,” he said. “The Australian accent is different from the English, which is different from the Caribbean.”
Another former international umpire K Hariharan, who was in the committee that approved this decision, said, “The problem often with Indian umpires, or those from the subcontinent, is that they take longer to explain things. Something that can be explained in five minutes would take 15 minutes for them.”
Amiesh Saheba, another former international umpire, felt it was high time and would go a long way in helping Indian umpires. “It is a good move. Indian umpires have often lagged on that front.”
However, will a small workshop do the trick? Ask a few umpires who have been in the Elite Panel in recent times and have done a fair job despite struggling with English.