Howzzat!
Home umpires appeal against preferential treatment to foreigners

G.S. Vivek

LIKE the ageing domestic stars, local umpires are upset at being ignored too. According to sources, the BCCI has roped in 11 foreign umpires for the IPL, out of which just two happen to be from the ICC Elite panel. The rest are from the one-day panel. And the allegations of preferential treatment to foreigners gain strength when one finds out that none of the Indian umpires from the one-day panel have made the IPL cut.

Interestingly, the IPL has given contracts to three — AV Jayaprakash, I Sivaram and K Hariharan — all of whom were removed from the Elite panel after adverse remarks from the ICC.

“The IPL could have been a good chance for our umpires to be given exposure to international cricket, and then check where they stand before recommending our names to the ICC and fast-tracking them to the BCCI one-day panel. But unfortunately they have looked at outsiders. And for the board to tell us that outsiders even on the one-day panel are better than us is demoralising,” says an umpire, who is now hoping to find his name in the list of 30 to be prepared by former elite panel umpire Srinivas Venkatraghavan for off-field duties and substitutes. “They will pick umpires and post them as TV and reserve umpires. So what’s the use?” he asks.

BCCI joint secretary MP Pandove, who is a member of the BCCI’s umpiring panel, defends the selection of foreign umpires. “We have promised the ICC that we will stage a world-class tournament. So we’ll do whatever we need to to reach that standard. Our umpires will also be on duty gradually. They can take over in subsequent years,” he says.