Captains to no longer assess umpires, says Shetty

BCCI to introduce umpire's coach

Cricinfo staff

July 11, 2007

With the Indian domestic scene plagued by poor umpiring the board has decided on a peculiar innovation, an umpire's coach © Cricinfo Ltd

In a step aimed at tackling poor umpiring at the domestic level, the Indian board (BCCI) has decided to introduce the concept of an umpire's coach from the forthcoming domestic season.

Ratnakar Shetty, the chief administrative officer of the BCCI, admitted that the new concept has come as a result of numerous complaints. "In many cases it's true, but we did not have a system or yardstick whereby the performance of an umpire could be evaluated properly. There's no system to pinpoint mistakes. We are hopeful the umpire's coach concept will find a solution and enhance the quality of umpiring in India's domestic tournaments", Shetty was quoted by The Hindu.

The board will initially designate 10 retired umpires for senior-level tournaments. The umpire's coach will be provided with technological assistance to supervise, evaluate and advice the on-field umpires at the end of the match.

They will have the benefit of monitoring the proceedings on video, with six cameras recording the match. A software programmed by S Ramakrishnan, the Indian team's analyst, will automatically 'tag' all the relevant incidents.

"The umpire's coach will get an opportunity to sit with the on-field umpires to show the mistakes made and correct them after the match. The BCCI will pick 30 or 35 elite panel umpires for the senior tournament matches. The match referee will report to the BCCI, but the umpire's coach will have a major role in assessing the on-field umpires", Ratnakar added.

"We plan to identify 20 odd umpires at the end of the 2007-08 season. Former ICC Elite Panel umpire S Venkataraghavan, who is the Director of Umpires, BCCI, will grade these umpires. Venkat can visit any venue and see the video recordings."

Shetty disclosed that there had been instances of umpires requesting captains to be lenient while assessing them. "The captains awarded marks to the umpires, but from the forthcoming season, the umpire's coach has been given the responsibility. The idea is to develop a reliable and effective system to ascertain the quality of an umpire and make sure that matches are officiated capably and efficiently leaving no room for doubt."

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In Focus

Umpiring

Players/Umpires

S Venkataraghavan

Teams

India