Anonymous e-mail reveals conflict of interest in umpire selection process in BCCI
An anonymous e-mail addressed to top BCCI officials shed light on the malpractices that take place in the BCCI umpire selection process that ultimately leads to a conflict of interest. At present, there are only 97 umpires and 54 referees to officiate as many as 55 matches a day in domestic cricket.
The BCCI has been under tremendous pressure to do things by the book ever since the Supreme Court appointed the Committee of Administrators to overlook and keep a check on the various activities of the Indian cricket’s premier governing body. One of the issues that can come back to bite the BCCI could be the process of umpire selection in the current scenario.
Almost a month ago on June 22, top BCCI officials such as secretary Amitabh Choudhary, treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry, CEO Rahul Johri and the members of the Committee of Administrators (CoA) received an anonymous letter which highlighted the unethical practices that took place in Indian cricket's umpiring ecosystem which primarily gave rise to a conflict of interest in the process to select future umpires.
"Hello sir, umpiring exam questions and answers are known to candidates beforehand. Happened for June 2018 exam. Had happened in 2017 exam. Please give appointment (sic) I can tell names of people involved and people benefiting or have
TOI conducted a research into the e-mail and found out that three of the six members - Bhupinder Singh Bhatti (Vidarbha), Rajiv Risodkar (MP), Shavir Tarapore (Karnataka), Ganesh Iyer, Vilas Bandivadekar and Ajit Datar (all Mumbai) were also actively involved in training and preparing potential umpire candidates for the selection.
The domestic 2018-19 season is just around the corner but there seems to be a shortage of umpires in the country to officiate in First Class cricket (Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy) and all other tournaments conducted by BCCI. As per reports, a total of 2,017 matches are lined up for the 2018-19 season while there were only 97 umpires and 54 referees to officiate as many as 55 matches a day in the upcoming season.
The whistleblower further went on to suggest ways and means as to how the BCCI can ensure a fair and just selection process for umpires in the upcoming season.
"Have (the) exams conducted by a private organization of people not related to umpiring. There are very good retired umpires who can set the paper. Here, candidates know the answers beforehand. For them, preparation before
