Action should be taken against umpires too

The suspension of Sourav Ganguly for bringing the game into disrepute evoked mixed response from all quarters. The ICC referee must have felt that the captain needs to set an example for his team-mates to emulate and as such he was severe on the Indian skipper. Be that as it may, there are always two sides to any issue. The excessive appealing did seem ungainly for all those watching the game and something had to be done to stop such behaviour. On the other hand a lot worse incidents have been hushed up or indifferent punishments served by various referees on different occasions involving more experienced campaigners in the past. The Harbhajan-Ponting, Donald-Dravid altercations come to mind immediately and the fact that a couple of Zimbabweans who were as guilty as Ganguly were let off does baffle the keen followers of the game. One other important factor that needs to be taken into account by the referees is the capability of the umpires officiating on the field of play.

Many issues have been given more than enough thought and some remedial measures have been taken with relation to various aspects of the game. One important aspect that has been ignored over the years is the standard of umpiring. Nothing substantial has been done to try and enhance one of the paramount issues of the game. For instance, the umpires who officiated in the game Ganguly got into trouble were very ordinary to say the least. If the umpires are not sure of their own capabilities, then the problems are bound to be there in plenty. It is inexplicable how inefficient umpires are repeatedly posted to officiate in international matches. To be fair to the umpiring fraternity, a lot of mistakes are made even by the cream of ICC panel umpires. Yet that is no justification for consistent inefficiency.

The umpires guild or union expressed a lot of misgivings when the concept of neutral umpires was implemented. They vociferously opined that opportunities would be denied to most of the experienced and senior umpires when it came to international matches. So the BCCI came up with a novel idea of appointing four umpires for one-day internationals in India. The third umpire is mandatory, as television replays have to be adjudicated. One wonders what exactly is the role of the fourth umpire in a match. Obviously it does not take a genius to work out that it was done with the sole objective of pleasing as many people as possible. As a cricketer, I wonder if the governing body would send two teams, one good enough to play and the other to please cricketers round the country. The tragedy is that the opinion of players generally is disregarded be it the match-fixing era or not.

The BCCI does have a system wherein the captains in domestic cricket are required to fill and send their reports about the umpires. The word "confidential" does appear at the top of the report sheet but there is no better farce in Indian cricket than that report. The captains do send their reports in right earnest but the way they are received is ridiculous. No action is taken as far as the umpires are concerned yet at the same time the players are meted out with stern punishment. During one of my playing years, an umpire officiated in about four major games and his ability was not given even a decent rating by both the winning and losing captains. The general impression was that he would be appraised of the situation and be asked to improve upon his knowledge of the laws of the game. Not surprisingly, he was in the list of the top ten umpires in the following season. Needless to say, his godfather took enough care to put him in a position, which he definitely did not deserve.

One other instance that would clearly indicate how the blessings bestowed by some BCCI officials on umpires allow the latter to get away with absolute rubbish. Delhi and Tamil Nadu were banned from the Ranji Trophy a couple of years ago as a result of a minor incident on the field. Both the sides threw allegations at the other but the manner in which the umpires in that game handled the situation was out of the world. They had to take decisions as the incident came within the laws of the game but instead they opted to receive instructions from a person who was at least about 1500 kilometres away. The later events just about proved how well the umpires knew the way the system operated as they were never even reprimanded, let alone being banned.

It is not that only the umpires are let off if they have support but some players also have got off with atrocities. By and large the game cannot improve overall if no steps are taken to improve the standard of umpiring. After all, a career can be made or broken by one mistake from an umpire. To err is definitely human but the way some of the umpires go about their jobs is detrimental not only to a few careers but also to the game in a big way.