New Delhi, September 10 : Eight years is a long time, enough for frustration to seep in, self-doubts too. Umpire Suresh Shastri clearly remembers that last match, “It was in 1998, Bangladesh vs Kenya at Chennai,” he says about his last international assignment. “It went off well,” he adds.

Since then, a sequence of events that included ICC constituting the Elite panel and Shastri having to patiently wait for his turn to stand in his next match. He spent these years “doing every small match, be it standing in under-13 matches, district matches, even club level matches.”

Finally, on Friday, the BCCI nominated three fresh names for the ICC Panel and he figured at the top. And how did he celebrate it? “Actually, I heard the news when I was on the field, standing in a district match, so it gave me even more pleasure,” he said over phone from Jaipur.

“There were times when I was quite upset at where I was heading. I have played for 15 years and stood in as umpire for 16 years now, so there were those little moments. Frankly, it wasn’t easy to digest but then I learnt to handle and cope with it, telling myself my time will come. I am now more mature to handle situations,” he says.

Ironically, Shastri entered the Indian umpiring frame —Ranji and then the all-India panel - along with Venkatraghavan and made his first class debut in 1993. And now, after the Venkatraghavan-headed panel proposed his name for big-time, Shastri says, “I want to bring in the same glory to the country as Venkat did.”

At 50, he’s not getting any younger but the Mumbaikar, who’s made Rajasthan his second home, says, “I agree that I am not young but at the same time I cannot be called a veteran too. There are many in the Elite panel who are 55-58 but there are still good. I think, as you go ahead, you tend to handle pressure better. One thing I have learnt in these years to stay in control of the proceedings, and in these times, it’s important,” he says. Tongue in cheek? Maybe.

How they rank

BCCI’s last season rankings of its three new top umpires

• Suresh Shastri: climbed from 18 in 2003-04 to 3.

• Amish Saheba: up from No 13 last seaon to No 6

• GA Pratap Kumar: not in top 20, but handpicked by Venkatraghavan