Umps aren't chumps

KSCA Stadium, Bangalore, Thursday afternoon. Rudi Koertzen is standing at the bowler’s end as Anil Kumble sets his field and Virender Sehwag and David Warner get into batting mode. Suddenly Koertzen’s voice booms out across the stadium and out into a million living rooms. Batsmen are you ready? Captain (turning towards Kumble) are you ready? Brian Jerling, are you ready? (This directed at the square-leg umpire). Scorers are you ready? Ladies and gentlemen of Bengaluru, are you ready? Then let’s play.

Apart from a nod to the rarely mentioned tribe of scorers, the guys who man cricket’s engine-room, this was largely gratuitous - the business part of it could have been delivered without the mic - and, well, unbecoming of Koertzen, one day short of his 61st birthday. Umpires have to deal with enough blows to their credibility; do they really need to be made to feel more like chumps?