Hariharan: Like players, Indian umpires also need mentors
IPL 2017 has been marred by horrible decisions from the Indian umpires and former international umpire K. Hariharan believes that, much like the players, the Indian umpires too, need to be mentored with feedback given to them after each game, in order to improve their on-field performances.
Poor umpiring has been a feature of IPL 2017 and K. Hariharan believes that only mentorship will save help the âcluelessâ umpires. Speaking to PTI in an interview, Hariharan said that the lack of guidance is hampering the on-field performances of the umpires. âLike the selectors are constantly watching the players from the sidelines, you have to have mentors for umpires who can monitor their performance during the game and point out their positives and negatives right after the game. As of now, there is nobody to guide Indian umpires on the domestic circuit. We all know some umpiring howlers have been committed in the IPL and that can happen, human errors happen all the time. But there should be a group of mentors to tell them after the game where they went wrong, where they went right, were they standing in the right position, things like thatâ.
Having officiated 34 ODIâs and two Test matches in his time, Hariharan is now part of a BCCI review committee that is supposed to periodically propose changes to improve the standards of umpiring in domestic cricket and he has done the needful along with former umpires Vijay Chopra, I Shivram, V K Ramaswamy. âWe have already submitted our report [to the BCCI] in which we have proposed the appointment of mentors for the top 25 umpires of the country. The board will decide the future course of action.â He also mentioned that there are presently 110 umpires certified by the BCCI.
Moreover, given that the IPL is a global event that attracts viewers from all over, the poor umpiring standards so far have shown India in poor light with social media being abuzz about the howlers committed by CK Nandan and Nitin Menon, especially after the duo allowed David Warner to take strike the next over after he struck a four off the last ball of the previous over in the game between Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad in Mumbai.
Earlier, the same pair had wrongly dismissed Rohit Sharma LBW despite the Mumbai Indiansâ skipper getting a big inside edge on the ball. And the howler prompted veteran batsman, Subramaniam Badrinath to slam the existing standards of officiating as he tweeted, âSeeing a lot of domestic umpires in this seasons @IPL, and the umpiring standards have been way below parâŚarguably the worst. Among all #IPL seasons.poor umpiring standards have prevailed for ages in the domestic circuit,
Seeing a lot of domestic umpires in this seasons @IPL ,and the umpiring standards have been way below par...arguably the worst ..contd
â subramani badrinath (@s_badrinath) April 9, 2017
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Among all #IPL seasons.poor umpiring standards have prevailed for ages in domestic circuit,its just being highlighted through #IPL2017
â subramani badrinath (@s_badrinath) April 9, 2017
Hariharan, on the other hand, found the first decision unforgivable, "The third umpire should have stepped in that scenario (Warner taking strike). However, not hearing big edges can happen especially in the IPL where you see big noisy crowdsâ. Having said that Hariharan was not to worried about the overall standards of Indian umpiring, "Overall, I would say that Indian umpires are not bad at all. One has to keep in mind that umpires are always judged by their mistakes, not by the good decisions they make.â
Finally, he added that the DRS has added pressure on the umpires, but regardless of the system the umpires should seek to make minimum mistakes in their decision-making.
At the moment, Sundaram Ravi is the only Indian umpire in the 12-member ICC elite panel, which includes four Englishmen, three Australians, and one each from Sri Lanka, Pakistan, South Africa and New Zealand.