Simon Taufel says that an Indian umpire as part of the elites is not going to happen...yet.
There’s no question that India is a cricket powerhouse. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the richest cricketing body in the world by a longshot. The IPL is the richest T20 league in the world while nearly 70 percent of ICC’s revenue comes from India.
Additionally, they are one of the most dominant teams on the pitch. They are the most consistent team of the decade across the three formats. They have won two ICC events (the 2011 World Cup and 2013 Champions Trophy) and finished in the top-four teams in nearly every event. Their Test team is ranked as the top for three years, and their bench boasts unmatched talent.
Despite all these, one thing has alluded the powerhouse’s grasp - the presence of umpires in the ICC Elite Panel. Their sole representative in the Elite Umpire list, S Ravi, was removed from the list earlier this year. He was part of the panel since 2015, wherein he officiated in 33 Tests, 48 ODIs, and 18 T20 Internationals. Simon Taufel, ICCs best umpire from 2004 to 2008, talked about the programme he started in India back in 2006 and how it took ten years to get S Ravi on the list.
‘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’, he said. According to Taufel, it takes a minimum of ten years to get the system to work the way it was designed to. Taufel is confident that BCCI President Sourav Ganguly will introduce a system ‘from the grass-root level for the skill-development of the Umpires’.
‘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’.
The Elite Panel of ICC Umpires is a panel of cricket umpires appointed by the International Cricket Council to officiate in Test matches and One Day Internationals around the world. One of the tournaments that they officiated is the ICC World Cup. To find out more about this and other tournaments, visit Betwala’s page.
READ MORE: What is the ICC Cricket World Cup?
