The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : `Indian umpires need to improve their standards'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 01, 2006

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Sport - Cricket

`Indian umpires need to improve their standards'

Special Correspondent

Bradman towers in `Best Ever Ratings for Test Batsmen' category

NEW DELHI: In a telling comment, the International Cricket Council General Manager (Cricket Operations) Dave Richardson said the Indian umpires were not up to the world standards. "It is a challenge for the Indian Board to improve on their performances," he remarked.

Mr. Richardson was speaking at the launch of the LG-ICC Players Rankings System here on Wednesday.

The absence of Indian representation on the ICC Elite Umpires panel was not due to any flawed process of appointment.

"We do the appointments as professionally as we can. Whoever does well is going to move forward. And if you are not up to the mark and there are other international umpires who are better, then you will be left out. It is a challenge for the BCCI to see that Indian umpires make it to the Elite Panel," he said as a matter of fact.

The BCCI is engaged in a process to identify and promote new umpires. It has formed a committee comprising former umpires S. Venkatraghavan, S.K. Bansal and V.K. Ramaswamy to suggest ways of improving the standards of umpiring in the country. The committee has submitted its report suggesting sweeping changes in the existing system of grading and paying the umpires and a decision is expected to be taken soon.

Mr. Richardson also defended the recent proposal to allow players to appeal against the on-field umpires' decisions. "It has received mixed response. It is split 50-50 among the players, umpires, officials and even the media.

Mark Benson, an ICC umpire from England, felt that he would be better off getting decisions verified by the third umpire and be not crucified later.

There are others who feel they are better qualified to make the decisions on their own."

If cleared, the system of appeals could be introduced at the Champions Trophy in October.

Also present at the occasion was Test left-arm spinner Murali Kartik, who has been out of action due to a shoulder injury that required surgery in Australia. He was positive that the injury would not keep him away from the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies.

On the timing of the surgery last month, Kartik said, "The team management and I thought that I had enough time to come back for the World Cup. I might need four-five months to recover and since India has no cricket after the West Indies series for a couple of months, this is the right time to have the surgery."

Kartik said he was exploring opportunities to play county cricket. "I should be playing much earlier than the new domestic season. I am looking to play in the English County season, probably Lancashire would still be interested in me."

Runaway winner

The new LG-ICC Players Rankings System confirms Don Bradman as the greatest of all.

The website allows the cricket fans to compare the batsmen and bowlers of all eras, based on the highest ever rating points achieved in the course of their career. Bradman towers in the `Best Ever Ratings for Test Batsmen' category with a 961 points achieved during Australia's home series against India in 1948.

Sunil Gavaskar is the best Indian batsman, placed at 20 with 916 points achieved during the England series of 1974.

Among the current set of players, Ricky Ponting ranks eighth with a best ever rating of 937, followed by Matthew Hayden at ninth (935), Brian Lara (23rd, 911), Jacques Kallis (31st) and Michael Vaughan (41st). And among Indians, Sachin Tendulkar is 28th (898) and Rahul Dravid 34th (892).

Among bowlers, Garner with 940 points tops the list while Sid Barnes of England is second with 932 points.

Muralitharan sixth

The Sri Lankan spin wizard, Muttiah Muralitharan (915) is sixth and Shane Warne 16th (905). Among Indians, Kapil Dev is placed at 35th with 877 points, Anil Kumble (859) at 43, followed by Maninder Singh (50th, 851), Vinoo Mankad (70th, 811), Subhash Gupte (77th, 806), Bishan Singh Bedi (81st, 804) and Dilip Doshi (87th, 794).

The website also reveals that Mahendra Singh Dhoni was only the second Indian ever to have been ranked No. 1 after Tendulkar in the rankings' history.

The LG-ICC Players Rankings are the official guide to the relative merits of batsmen, bowlers and all-rounders in Test match and ODI cricket.

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