Hopefully umpiring is part of Ganguly's plans for domestic cricket, states Simon Taufel
Former international umpire Simon Taufel has expressed his wish that Sourav Ganguly will include the improvement of umpires in his grand plans to revamp the domestic system of Indian cricket. Taufel has repeatedly echoed the fact that it takes time to develop an international official.
Even after being a superpower in the world of cricket, both in terms of money as well as the standard of the team, India don't have an umpire in the International Cricket Council's (ICC) elite panel. S Ravi, who was India's representative on the panel since 2015, was removed earlier this year after officiating in 33 Tests, including the Ashes, 48 ODIs and 18 T20 Internationals. Former umpire Simon Taufel voiced concern for the same as he shared it takes a decade to develop an umpire for the international stage.
"It does take 10 years to get to world-class. I remember when we started our programme in India in 2006 and finished in 2016, it took 10 years to get S Ravi into the elite panel," Taufel told PTI in an interview.
Taufel also hoped that new BCCI chief Sourav Ganguly includes umpiring in his grand plans to revamp India's domestic system for the sport.
"So there needs to be a rethink (from the BCCI). I am not sure if there is anything wrong necessarily. They need umpires and Sourav Ganguly (new BCCI boss) perhaps is on the right path when he talks about strengthening domestic cricket and hopefully umpiring is part of that programme."
Before Ravi, only one other Indian has been able to break into the elite panel and he is S Venkataraghavan. Taufel shared that the environment should be correct for the officials to grow.
"...it is not just about the umpires themselves, it is about the structure and system. It is all about creating an environment where the umpires can grow. That means you need to have dedicated resources. You need to have an umpires' manager, umpires' coach, umpires' trainer. We also need to create an environment where people feel safe and there is meritocracy," the Australian said.
In this age of technology, umpiring is no less than walking on the edge of a sword, even the slightest of mistakes are magnified to the maximum. In the past, Taufel, who has spoken about the extreme challenges of umpiring, maintained that the art cannot be perfected, when asked if he would have liked to be an umpire in this technology-driven era where each mistake is magnified, Taufel said: "Not necessarily. It is just the nature of the beast, you got to keep adapting to the changing environments."
"...if you look at comments made by Tim Paine (Australia captain) during the recent Ashes series, he spoke about how difficult it is for captains to get the reviews right, they have greater appreciation for the umpires now. Umpiring is not for everyone. Technology also shows how many good decisions they make," he concluded.
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