Technology puts umpires under pressure - Madugalle (17 Dec 1997)

Wednesday 17, December 1997

Technology puts umpires under pressure

By SA'ADI THAWFEEQ

Renowned International Cricket Council (ICC) match referee Ranjan Madugalle is of the opinion that cricket umpires the world over are under more pressure because of the availability of technology.

"I think the umpires are very much aware and conscious of it. That's a factor they have to learn to live with,'' said Madugalle.

"Because of the availability of technology, you are suddenly finding umpires decisions being criticised,'' he said.

"It doesn't mean that the umpiring standards worldwide have actually gone down. It is just that people are getting more of an opportunity with the availability of technology as opposed to say ten years ago, where we would listen only to radio commentaries.

"So it is by no stretch of imagination can one feel the standard of umpiring has gone down worldwide,'' said Madugalle.

The former Sri Lanka captain and national selector was asked for his opinion on the standard of umpiring following the recently concluded Test series between Sri Lanka and India, where some blatant decisions were given by umpires who belonged to the ICC international panel.

According to Madugalle, umpires to the international panel are appointed once a year and, if they do have one bad game, they do not get wiped out from the panel. The match referee tells them basically where they have gone wrong, or that some of the decisions given have not been right.

"It works in the same way as for a top batsman. He might score two or three hundreds on the trot and if he has one bad game it doesn't mean that he gets dropped. He will be left out if he consistently fails,'' said Madugalle.

Umpires do have a regular check on their performances after every game and, it is not one person who checks their performances, but three - the two captains and the match referee. The umpires are graded on the standard report which acts as a guideline to their performances in a Test match.

"After every game, one umpire is rated against the other umpire on three key parameters, which is, consistency and correctness of decisions, attitude to players and, how they cope with pressure,'' said Madugalle.

"They are rated very good, good or poor. They are also rated on the principle type of decisions a batsman can get out to. Over time, you might be giving very good decisions on caught behind and bat/pad, but you may not be giving correct decisions on lbw's. The system will actually throw that out.

"The only thing is, it has been in operation only for the last 12 months or so. It is in the process of being fine tuned,'' said Madugalle.

One area where Madugalle is critical is that certain captains do not take the trouble to do a proper evaluation of the umpires.

"Only if they have a bad game do some captains go into details. Sometimes they don't do regular assessments. This has now been stressed upon at captains meetings and team brief meetings by the match referees.

"Now most international captains actually spend a fair time filling these forms. It is according to their assessment, that the umpires get assigned,'' said Madugalle.

The reports are collected in the ICC data bank and the umpires are rated and ranked accordingly.

"What the ICC is trying to do through this, is to have the best umpires from the international panel doing more matches than the other umpires,'' said Madugalle.

"Unfortunately, due to the fact of the number of Test matches being played at the same time, and the fact of neutrality coming in, you will not find the best umpiring all over the world simply because of this,'' he said.

Source :: Daily News (https://www.lanka.net)