Lack of umpires, grounds delays age-group games

The knockout rounds of India's domestic Under-22 championship, the CK Nayudu Trophy, have been postponed to December due to a lack of qualified umpires and the unavailability of quality grounds. Right now first-class, Under-19 and women's cricket, as well as the India-West Indies series, is being played across the country, contributing to the shortage.

The BCCI's chief administrative officer, Ratnakar Shetty, confirmed the matter. "The Under-16, Under-19 age groups are overlapping with the Ranji matches," he told the Indian Express. "At certain places we didn't have proper umpires from our authorised panel and in certain places good grounds weren't available.

"After two years we are having Under-19 zonal games because of the World Cup [scheduled for August 2012, in Australia]. So keeping all these things in mind, we have decided to postpone the Under-22 knockout rounds from November 26 to December 15."

At present, apart from the Under-19 zonal games, the women's one-day championship is on. The next round of Ranji Trophy games will be played between November 29 and December 2. The Under-19 Cooch Behar Trophy and Under-16 Vijay Merchant Trophy will also commence from December 1. The third Test against West Indies is scheduled to finish in Mumbai on November 26, and is followed by five one-dayers between November 29 and December 11. Regulations stipulate that all domestic matches require a minimum of three officials, Ranji Trophy matches need four, while televised matches need five.

"Frankly we didn't anticipate this sort of a problem," Shetty said. "From next year, we will schedule the matches in a better way so that all games are held in an organised manner."