Taufel wants change in attitude to Indian umpiring

Simon Taufel has expressed disappointment at the general perception prevalent not just among fans but importantly also among the Indian players that the Indian umpires were not meeting global standards. Taufel said the umpires from the country have made "tremendous progression" despite there being no Indian presence on the ICC's Elite Panel.

Taufel - who is advisor and mentor to the BCCI's Elite panel of umpires - was blunt in his remarks against the Indian players who he felt did not give the required respect to the umpires. "We would love the players to appreciate and show equal empathy for the difficult nature of our job, appreciate that better umpires get it right, that we are human beings after all," Taufel told ESPNcricinfo in an interview in Kolkata, last Sunday. "We do it because we love it and because we want to add value."

Relations between players and the umpires have always been frosty, but Taufel managed to keep his head high based on the high percentage of correct decisions he made. However, most umpires have received flak, at times in public, from the players. One prominent example occurred recently when Chennai Super Kings' captain MS Dhoni called Richard Illingworth's decision "horrible" after the England umpire had ruled Dwayne Smith lbw erroneously.

The players, Taufel said, needed to provide constructive feedback and not just grumble about the shortcomings of the match officials. "When the umpires do well they won't get noticed. When the umpires do something wrong they stick out," he said. "So within the cultural aspect here in India I'd love the players and the captains to realise they need to be part of the solution to improve Indian umpiring and not part of the problem. At the end of the day, you can tell a winning captain's report from a losing captain's report. Umpires either have given too many lbws or they have not given enough. What we are trying to promote is transparency and integrity. The BCCI tried to address the issue several years ago by putting in video cameras. That is important.

"Don't tell us they missed three caught-behinds and three lbws. Tell us he seemed to lose concentration and focus in the last session on day 1. That he was not in a good frame of mind to communicate effectively. That he was in a bad position to make that run-out decision."

Asked whether players taking up umpiring could change the mindset, Taufel said that could definitely prove useful. "What I would like to see more in India is players respecting how difficult umpiring is; maybe try it themselves. It would be great to see a Rahul Dravid or a Sachin Tendulkar donning a white coat," Taufel said.

Taufel said that historically the match officials, the third team in any match,  have never been acknowledged. But people involved have to start altering that long-standing trend. "Everybody has a role to play. The media in the way it promotes positiveness of umpiring and match officiating. The players in the way respect the role and they conduct themselves on the field and the feedback that they give us. The administrators in creating an environment where people can excel and the pathways are clearly defined. And public in the way they talk about umpiring and in the way they encourage people to be involved in the game as well. We are not soft targets. We are participants in the game."

Since the Elite Panel was constituted by the ICC in 2002 only one Indian - S Venkataraghavan - has been on it. It has been a matter of debate frequently, but without many answers. "The goal is not to put an Indian umpire on the Elite Panel. It is a nice by-product," Taufel said. "The goal here is to improve and to shift umpiring in this country and position ourselves and deliver best umpiring to people who play."

As an immediate example of the progression of the  Indian umpires Taufel pointed out their growth in the IPL. In IPL 2015, out of 26 match officials 17 were Indians, including 14 umpires and three match referees. "When I joined the IPL in the second season (2009), there were no Indian umpires in the play-offs. Here we are six years later we have got the highest number of Indian umpires involved in the play-offs. The other night we had two Indian umpires on field in the Eliminator.

"That tells me, tells the rest of the world and tells the Indian umpires that people who are selecting them for those matches had faith and trust in the performance abilities of those umpires."

Taufel pointed out that the IPL was also a good yardstick to measure success because it threw various challenges in the path of an upcoming umpire. "I feel the IPL is a tremendous opportunity for the Indian umpires to work with the best in the world and learn from them. There's great media scrutiny, huge crowds and the top players are involved. We can see how they respond and reinforce what they are doing well. They are doing well largely and it is about giving them self belief."

Not just the IPL, but even at the international stage the Indians umpire were gaining a foothold. "There have been a lot of success stories over the last few years. We have had Indian umpires officiating at the World Cup and we have two umpires going to the World Twenty20 qualifiers. Our focus is to improve Indian domestic umpiring. We have produced four quality International Panel umpires. They are doing extremely well and one of them (S Ravi) is officiating at Lord's in a Test match. It is his fifth Test match. He has been to a World Cup and put his name up for selection. The rest is up to the selectors."

At the time of the interview Taufel had been highly impressed by Ravi going through the first three days of the Lord's Test without being noticed (a measure of success in the Taufel book of umpiring). Ravi is part of the group of four Indian umpires who are overseen closely by Taufel. Anil Chaudhary, C Shamshuddin and Vineet Kulkarni are the other three. According to Taufel, who started working with Indian umpires from 2006 when he came as part of a Cricket Australia team, one of the big changes he has noticed in the Indian umpires is they have become more honest about their work and that only helps in the assessment and growth.