The umpire famine

Just read a piece by Harsha Bhogle in today’s Indian Express on how the ICC’s more sinned against than sinning. Not sure I agree with that. In fact the way the ICC’s made a mess of international umpiring is a case in point.

The first thing an economy needs is infrastructure – before the booming factories, you need to get the power stations running and roads ready. Cricket’s equivalent, I suppose, is the paucity of top-level umpires. The ICC’s Elite panel is woefully small and overworked, leading to, most recently, Simon Taufel announcing he’s had enough.

How has the ICC tackled this? In a very ad hoc manner. At its Dubai meeting, I expected a discussion – if not a blueprint – on upgrading umpiring skills across member countries leading to, say a doubling to the Elite panel strength in 15 months or 18 months. Some discussion on using technology to aid umpires or even take over decision-making to some degree would also have helped.

It’s all very well to say umpires are intrinsic to the game and cricket needs the “human touch”. These are fine clichés for a Sunday afternoon game – not for a multi-million dollar, serious sporting enterprise. If umpires have to take recourse to technology and replays more and more, so be it. They’re not the stars on the field, the players are.

As the biggest economy/stakeholder, the BCCI should be leading the discussion on the future of umpiring. With IPL and with a very busy international programme for its team(s), India needs top-quality umpiring and umpiring solutions more than anyone else.

What the ICC has come up with is woefully inadequate. I mean, either Darrell Hair and Steve Bucknor are good umpires or they’re not. Either they’re good enough for all teams or they’re not. I believe Bucknor is no more a top-grade umpire, which is why he should not be standing when England plays Australia or New Zealand plays Sri Lanka for that matter. The ICC can agree or disagree; it can’t half-agree. To keep Bucknor out of India’s matches and keep Hair away from Pakistan’s games sets a very bad precedent.