BCCI defers call on revising the umpiring structure

A proposal has been put before the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to place the umpires into two groups instead of the four currently in place, but the Apex Council, which met recently, has deferred a decision on the suggestion.

Members of the Umpires Committee - Amish Saheba, K Hariharan and Sudhir Asnani - have made an elaborate presentation on the need to restructure the grouping. However, the Apex Council members do not appear convinced to alter the existing system at the moment.

It is learnt that the BCCI is contemplating forming a committee before taking up any revision in the umpiring structure and its payment framework. "The matter has been kept in abeyance," a BCCI source told Cricbuzz. At present, there are 186 umpires in the BCCI fold in all, and they are divided into four groups: A+, A, B and C.

The Umpires Committee has contended that the quality of umpiring is often better from those in the lower groups and that postings for important games, like knockouts, are anyway made from these ranks because of the superior performances. At times, the committee pointed out, there have been instances of disparity in the fees of two officiating umpires in the same match because of variance in the payment structure across groups.

"In the previous years, normally the A+ and A group umpires were posted for important games and Knock out games. But in the last 2 seasons the performance of the majority of the umpires from these 2 groups were not up to the expected level and so the better performing umpires from B and C groups were posted to umpire in key matches and had performed as per expectations," the committee says in its note to the Apex Council, accessed by Cricbuzz.

The committee, further, explains the point: "There is a system of promotion and demotion in every group. At present A+ to A is 1, A to B is 2 and B to C is 5 and vice versa. But this system of promotion and demotion formula is not working very well because the non performing umpires in A+ and A are much higher, whereas the performing umpires in Group B and C are much better. So it is becoming difficult to fit in the performing umpires in the higher groups."

The committee goes on: "Also as you are aware, the payment structure for the A+ and A is more than the B and C groups. Even mixing 2 umpires of different groups becomes difficult since 2 umpires doing the same job will get different payments. The irony is, a performing umpire gets paid less for the same job than the other umpire."

Three of the 186 umpires will attain 60 this year and will retire. In A+ Group, there are 10 umpires - five ICC panel and five BCCI panel umpires. One umpire, namely Anil Choudhary, has already retired. In A Group there are 20 umpires, including three former ICC umpires and currently five umpires are on the verge of retirement.

In Group B, there are 58 umpires, including 12 who will superannuate in the next one and three years. Twenty six new umpires have been included in the C category. The current breakdown of the groupings is:

A+ category: 9 umpires

A category: 20 umpires

B category: 58 umpires

C category: 99 (including 26 new umpires)

Total: 186 umpires

At present A+ and A group umpires are paid Rs. 40000 a day and the fee for the B and C group umpires is Rs. 30000 a day, which apparently has not been revised for the last seven years. The committee has suggested course correction.

"To address this critical issue and to overcome this difficulty, it is suggested for the approval of the following points.

(a) Scrap the groupings, and board all the umpires in two groups of 90 and 96 umpires in each group alphabetically but performance should be the criteria to post them for various matches 14.

(b) Every two years there shall be promotion and demotion of 20 umpires from top group to bottom group and vice versa."

The committee further states, "The payment per day for all the umpires should bet the same ie. Rs. 40,000 a day . Only better performing umpires shall be posted for the entire knock out matches, and they may be paid Rs. 50,000 a day so that a healthy competitive situation can be created to perform better among the upcoming umpires. The number of days will be definitely more for the better performing umpires and this can also create a healthy competitiveness among the umpires (Sic)."

The committee has recommended the following measures to achieve the objective:

The assessment of Umpires and their performance review and appraisal will be of paramount importance. In this regard, the Match Referees reporting and assessment, which are in the match situation with the Umpires, will play a big role in appraisal of performance of the umpires concerned (Sic).

The cameras and the recorders may be upgraded to record and assess the performance in a better way, as the present cameras and recorders are almost 15 years old and are outdated (Sic).

Maybe we have to develop a system of assessing and reviewing the performance of the Match Referees, because they are the first and most important stepping stone for umpires' assessment and development. With this measure, we can achieve uniformity in the assessment of umpires across all areas of umpiring - decision-making, match management, player management, reporting suspect bowling action, code of conduct violations, over-rate conclusions, teamwork, positive projection of umpiring, etc. Through this kind of assessment, we can develop an umpire as a complete package (Sic).

This year, the committee has reviewed all the matches and all the appeals in time so that the performance of the umpires can be readily available and can form the basis for posting the umpires to the next level of matches. The weightage of 75% of the Match Referee (MR) report and 25% of the Umpires Committee report should be implemented to evaluate the performance of the umpires (Sic).

Most importantly, some umpires who have the potential can be selected and groomed to the best desired standard with regular mentoring as has been introduced in this year's WPL and IPL (Sic).