Neutral umpires still the best way to go forward, says MCC Committee
The MCC committee has stated that the appointment of neutral umpires will still be the best way to go forward in the future. The "neutral umpire" rule was questioned by several greats including Ricky Ponting, after no less than 15 incorrect decisions were made in the first Ashes Test.
After the umpires were accused of bias and favouritism, the idea of "neutral umpires" was experimented with on November 7, 1986, when Indian umpires VK Ramaswamy and Piloo Reporter stood in a Test against West Indies in Lahore. The move was masterminded by none other than the great Imran Khan, and in no time, the ICC moved from one neutral umpire per Test to two neutral umpires in each Test, starting from the year 2002.
Since then, controversies with regards to umpires have been few and far between, with people more often than not blaming technology for inaccuracy. However, the "neutral umpires" rule has come into the limelight once again post the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston, which saw a whopping 15 incorrect calls made by on-field umpires, with West Indian umpire Joel Wilson having eight decisions of his being overturned by the players.
However, unfazed by the criticism, John Stephenson, head of cricket at MCC, believes that neutral umpires are still the best way to go about it, while admitting that there's an "imbalance" in the current elite panel, which sees seven of the 12 panel members hail from either England or Australia.
“I think the feeling is still that neutrality works. Unfortunately there is still quite an imbalance in the ICC elite panel," said Stephenson, reported Hindustan Times.
The issue was brought to the fore by ex-Australian skipper Ricky Ponting, who lashed out at the umpiring, stating that the rule needed a re-think. Stephenson acknowledged the comments of Ponting, while opining that more measures would probably have to be taken in order to improve the standards of umpiring and get a better split in the elite panel list.
“It was a bit of a focus during the last Test match and Ricky mentioned the possibility of bringing back non-neutral umpires,” he said.
“It’s probably a good time for the base to be broadened, maybe something should be done to train up more umpires to get them to elite level around the world.” he added.
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