Umpires strike back at the Indians

The root of Indian players’ problems lie at domestic level tournaments. The players protest almost at will the moment an umpire blows the whistle. Five leading international umpires in the country — Shakeel Qureshi, Virender Bahadur Singh, Satinder Singh, Rajinder Gandhi and Suresh Bhatia — supervising the matches in the ongoing Gurmit Hockey Tournament here, blame it on the players for lack of knowledge about the game’s rules.

They also feel that umpiring in international tournaments is much easier than in domestic tournaments. ‘‘Because the players know the rules by heart. They don’t challenge the umpiring decision and respect the umpires,’’ says Shakeel Qureshi. The umpire from Bhopal is the most respected one with 72 international matches to his credit.

He adds, ‘‘We face little difficulty at international level. The European players keep themselves updating with the rule changes. They know where they have gone wrong. As a result, they do not question the decision. Moreover the captain is always there to control the situation.’’