Miscellaneous

Umpires in Calcutta go on flash strike

More than half the matches conducted by the Cricket Association of Bengal had to be called off on Friday as the umpires in the city went on a flash strike protesting against the behaviour meted out to them by the CAB

Sakyasen Mittra
02-Dec-2000
More than half the matches conducted by the Cricket Association of Bengal had to be called off on Friday as the umpires in the city went on a flash strike protesting against the behaviour meted out to them by the CAB. The umpires, under the banner of the Umpires of the Cricket Association of Bengal had been fighting a cold war with the CAB for sometime now. Things came to a boiling point on Wednesday. On that day, the joint secretary of the CAB Debdas Bannerjee insulted the President of the Umpires Association Arya Kishore Chatterjee. The former stated that the latter was `sabotaging' the tournaments run by the CAB in Calcutta. A disgruntled group of umpires then decided to call a strike.
Talking to reporters on Friday, the secretary of the Umpires Association Sekhar Choudhury said that they had certain specific demands. Choudhury, who is an international umpire, said, "The first of these is an increase in our match fees. At the moment, the umpires receive Rs 140, 120 and 80 according to their seniority. We have asked the CAB to hike it to RS 300, 250, 200 and 150 according to our seniority. They have been stating that they would be doing so. However, they have not done anything so far."
Choudhury also added that the umpires' association had a few more demands. Amongst them is a separate room for the umpires at the Eden Gardens. Another is that the umpires should be allowed to conduct matches in outstation tournaments during the off-season, when there are no tournaments in Bengal. The CAB does not allow most of its umpires to conduct matches away from the state. Recently, the CAB has also objected to the umpires using the logo of a local company on their uniforms. Choudhury said, "We have managed to get a sponsor through our efforts. The CAB has never looked into that matter in the past. So we really have no idea why the CAB should object to our enterprise."
Meanwhile, the umpires have also decided to lodge a formal complaint with the CAB President Jagmohan Dalmiya regarding the insult meted out to Arya Kishore Chatterjee. Choudhury said, "He was asked to conduct a match at a day's notice. He could not do so as he had other important duties to attend to. He is a very senior officer of the Calcutta Police Department. The joint secretary of the CAB had no right to behave with him in an insulting manner."
It is expected that Dalmiya will involve himself in the present imbroglio and try to work out a solution.