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Umpires in India need a better deal

By Vijay Lokapally

NEW DELHI JUNE 3. Even as the Board president Jagmohan Dalmiya seems keen on spreading the game to the remotest corners of the country, even as new academies are opened to accommodate and please more and more former cricketers, even as dole is haded out to certain sections of the administration, the problems of the umpires remain unattended.

The umpiring fraternity has always been given a step-motherly treatment by the administrators and the trend has continued under the current regime too. The Board has done little for the umpires, who remain voiceless. Dissent on the field, even threats to some of the umpires, evoke little response from a Board which is punch-drunk by its overflowing coffers.

In the season just concluded, the captain of a team from the east zone dared the umpires to start the game in Goa. "I'll report you to Dalmiya,'' the captain is reported to have warned the umpires, who had no option but to comply. In the absence of any support from any quarters, it is indeed a shame that the umpires prefer to suffer in silence. To protest means to be a marked man in the eyes of vindictive Board officials.

But a glorious exception has emerged in the shape of V.N. Kulkarni from Bangalore, an umpire with more than twelve years of first-class experience — he has afficiated in two One-day Internationals — with exceptional work on the field. Mr. Kulkarni has stuck his neck out for the benefit of his mates by writing a letter to the Board president, highlighting the woes of the umpires from all five zones.

Kulkarni has appealed to the Board to concentrate on a few points: 1) an urgent need to streamlining the posting of umpires; 2) to provide incentive to umpires since all international matches are to be adjudicated by the International Cricket Council panel; 3) : system to groom the next line of umpires. ''With the formation of elite and non-elite panels, what will be the status of those umpires who were on all-India panel and have officiated in One-Day Internationals and Tests and have presently been condemned to the non-elite panel,'' asks Kulkarni.

The Board, in its attempts to cash in on the popularity of the game, has concentrated more on the players but paid little thought to the fact that the umpiring standards at the State-level have been severely affected and there has been no effort to raise the standard of umpiring overall.

Few coaching or refresher sessions have been conducted and as Kulkarni rightly points out in his well-meaning letter, there has been no system whereby the umpires can get any feedback on their performance, other than the one of earning marks through the captains' reports.

The Board had 131 umpires on its panel — 70 in the all-India category and 61 for the Ranji panel. The umpires had been divided into two panels — elite and non-elite — from 2002-03 season with 40 in the elite panel. The non-elite panel consists of those umpires who also officiated in Tests and One-day Internationals.

"How will anyone from this panel get elevated to the elite panel. Will there be any relegation system. What will be the incentive for those who have been reduced to just being the fourth umpire for international matches now,'' Kulkarni has asked.

Incidentally, the umpires for these panels were to be graded on the basis of their performances during the last four seasons. The Board later changed it to performances in the past five seasons. Obviously to accommodate a few umpires, but at what cost?

The elite 40 had not been selected on the basis of zone or the state from which an umpire comes but purely on merit resulting in one or two zones or states having a greater number of representatives. Since neutral umpires have to be posted, officials from a particular state or zone stand to lose if they hail from a zone or state having better team.

The current break-up is South (14), West (10), North (8), Central (4) and East (4). On an average, umpires from East, Central and North would officiate in 11 to 15 matches compared to umpires from West and South who would get to stand in six to eight matches.

In his appeal, Kulkarni pleads for postings without any discrimination so that all the umpires get equal number of matches in the junior and senior competitions. A close look at last year's postings would reveal that merit was ignored resulting in some umpires getting much more remuneration and benevolent fund contributions despite the others being ranked equal.

To fight this evil, Kulkarni moots the idea of umpires being contracted to the Board and receiving a fixed sum in addition to travelling expenses. In the current scenario, an umpire, for standing five days of a Ranji final, takes home a paltry sum of Rs. 2,700 after income tax and benevolent fund deductions.

For the forthcoming season, the Board is likely to hike the fees for first-class cricket to Rs 35,000 per match but nothing has been announced for the umpires. The plight of the umpires may be gauged from the fact that a player in the ongoing matches of the National Cricket Academy gets Rs 600 a day and the coach Rs. 1,000 day. For the umpire, the fee happens to be a mere 350 a day, after standing for 100 overs in searing heat despite spending double the time that an under-17 player spends on the field.

The Board certainly needs to take a fresh look at its attitude to umpires. It cannot afford to lose the few quality umpires available by subjecting them to threats from captains like in the match at Goa. The Board also needs to help the umpires gain respect for some of them officiate for the love of it.

A few umpires stand out in this regard for their integrity and self-respect. S.V. Ramani once put Sourav Ganguly in his place in a Ranji Trophy match and earned an apology from the India skipper for his misbehaviour on the field. Kulkarni once sent Mumbai skipper Sanjay Manjrekar out for a session for using foul language against the umpires in a Ranji Trophy match. And M.R. Singh took on a noted commentator for his slanderous description of the game and the standard of umpiring. Cricket culture would be enriched by the presence of such tough and sincere umpires who value traditions and not reputations.

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