Richardson’s verdict: Merit alone matters

Dave Richardson, ICC’s General Manager of Cricket (Operations), revealed that the ICC intended to treat umpires in the same, fair manner as players are dealt with by individual boards. ‘‘Rehabilitating De Silva was exactly on the same lines. He’s had a few bad series and, to put it in a player’s terminology, was dropped. We don’t want a situation where, once he’s out, he remains there. Like players, if umpire start performing well again, they would be reinstated.’’

To support his argument, the former South African cricketer said that the ICC had been monitoring De Silva’s performance when he stood at home matches and felt the need to give him some assignments abroad to gauge his performance further. ‘‘He isn’t in the elite panel yet, but yes, if he keeps performing well, there are chances,” he added.

Interestingly, the selection of elite panel umpires has remained a bone of contention between Test playing nations and the ICC. Australia have three members on the panel and Pakistan two while India has had none after Srinivas Venkatraghavan opted to hand his coat. Understandably, this set a few tongues waging, chiefly because ICC president Ehsan Mani and Chief executive Malcom Speed belonging to Pakistan and Australia, respectively.

Richardson, however, ruled out any bias in picking umpires for the panel and maintained ‘‘merit alone is the parameter.’’ In fact, he lashed out at BCCI’s inability to making efforts to improve the quality and standard of umpiring in the country.

“We appoint umpires as professionally as we can. India have a couple of them but they are quite not there. And if you are not up to the mark and there are other international umpires who are better, then you will be left out. It is a challenge for the BCCI to see that Indian umpires make it to the Elite Panel,” he said.

Citing the Australian Cricket Board as an example in setting the standards, Richardson said, “ACB invests so much money in improving their umpiring standards. There’s no short-cut to success, you have to budget money for umpires and set-up a proper infrastructure.”

Not so appealing?

Richardson, who was in the capital to announce the launch of an official player’s website, said the ICC has been receiving mixed response to its recent decision to allow players to appeal three times in an innings to the third umpire against the decision of on-field umpires. The new rule will be put on trial from the Champions’ Trophy. “We have mixed response coming in — from the players and umpires. It’s a 50-50 decision so far. The ICC will consider it in its forthcoming executive meeting in July,” he added. (ENS)

… bCCI reacts, scraps umpires’ panel

Mumbai: In a dramatic move the BCCI scrapped the 13-member elite panel of Indian umpires and have formed a three-member committee — headed by former ICC elite panel umpire S Venkatraghavan — to relook at the entire system. The other two members of the committee will be former Test umpires S.K. Bansal and VK Ramaswamy. Besides, the BCCI will also invite a reputed international Elite panel umpire who will coach his counterparts in the country.

The umpires of the scrapped panel will be asked to reappear for a written and practical examinations again. Subsequently, the committee will nominate six of the best umpires in the country to the ICC and ACC (Asian Cricket Council) panel.

OTHER DECISIONS

• The South African ‘A’ team has been invited by the BCCI to take part in the Duleep Trophy for the 2006-07 season

• More tours for India ‘A’ and Under-19 teams. The India ‘A’ team, which is scheduled to tour Australia next month for the Top End series, will be touring South Africa in February-March next year. The Under-19 team, meanwhile, will be touring Pakistan this September for a Test and one-day series

• The 2006-07 season will now see the Ranji Trophy one-day matches played in coloured clothing and are most likely to be held under lights, as per the facilities provided by the venue

• Following the success of the Elite and Plate Division groups in the Ranji Trophy and the Under-19 Cooch Behar Trophy, the board is now planning to host the Under-17 level matches in a similar manner

(ENS)