BCCI announces A+ category for umpires

• BCCI announces the A+ category of umpires.
• 4 foreign umpires are also included.
• BCCI will pay Rs. 30000 per day to an A+ and A category.

BCCI announces the A+ category of umpires and Nitin Menon, a member of the ICC Elite Panel, is one of ten officials placed in the newly created category. Four foreign umpires are also present, including Anil Chaudhary, Madangopal Jayaraman, Virender Sharma, and KN Ananthapadmanabhan.

The A+ category also includes Rohan Pandit, Nikhil Patwardhan, Sadashiv Iyer, Ulhas Gandhe, and Navdeep Singh Sidhu.

Twenty umpires, including C. Shamshuddin, are in the A group, while sixty are in Group B, forty-six are in Group C, and eleven are in Group D, which includes those aged 60 to 65. Following the efforts of former international umpires K Hariharan, Sudhir Asnani, and Amiesh Saheba, as well as members of the BCCI umpires’ subcommittee, the whole list was presented during Thursday’s meeting of the Apex Council.

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A+ and A category umpires would be paid Rs 40,000 per day for a first-class match, while B and C level umpires will be paid Rs 30,000 per day. Despite the fact that the list was presented as a “gradation of umpires,” a BCCI representative emphasised to PTIa local news agency that the board had defined groupings.

“It is not grading. There are groups, with A+ being the new category,” the official said. “A+ and A, one can say, form the cream of Indian umpires. Umpires in B and C category are also good.

“When it comes to assigning duties across domestic events starting at the top with Ranji Trophy, preference will be given group wise. The grouping has been done after reviewing the performances of the 2021-2022 season.”

Since 2018, the board has not added to its list of umpires. The BCCI has chosen to stage a full-fledged domestic season in 2022-23, two years after the threat of Covid-19 has decreased.

It intends to organise as many as 1832 age-group games for men’s and women’s cricket, a major undertaking.

In the highly-watched IPL, Indian umpires are frequently criticised for their performance. Currently, only one Indian, Menon, is a member of the ICC’s elite panel.

When asked if more umpires are graduating to the top level, the BCCI representative added: “We put too much emphasis on the elite panel. Only England has three umpires in the elite panel, Australia has two and rest only one. You can only have so much there.
“The focus should be on improving standard of umpiring at all levels.”

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