Who cares about umpiring standards?
Malcolm Conn in the Australian is scathing of the ICC's lack of interest in umpiring standards
Brydon Coverdale
25-Feb-2013
Malcolm Conn in the Australian is scathing of the ICC's lack of interest in umpiring standards. He writes that while Rudi Koertzen's mistakes are not the reason for Australia being 1-0 down in the Ashes, it is an indictment on the game that umpiring is treated as such a low priority.
Cricket has many problems which are made worse by the political maze which is the International Cricket Council. Nothing matters more than a good backroom chat to stitch up a vote. Just ask all those who continue to support Zimbabwe. So when fundamental aspects of the game, like umpiring, come to the fore they get shunted off to a committee to deal with. And why would anyone listen to a committee when there are tournaments to be hosted and millions to be made.
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The more money that is poured into the encouragement and development of umpires around the world the better. Perhaps the millions Zimbabwe was paid to stay away from the World Twenty20 in England earlier this year could have been spent on umpires. And perhaps just a fraction of the billions India makes from television rights and the player-destroying Indian Premier League could be spent on developing a few decent umpires of its own.
Brydon Coverdale is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets here