Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Another feather in the BCCI's cap

Suresh Shastri will become the first umpire from India to officiate a South African first-class match when he stands in the SuperSport Series game between the Dolphins and the Lions, starting on Thursday in Durban.

The BCCI and Cricket South Africa (CSA) organised an umpires' exchange programme under which two umpires from India will officiate two first-class matches in South Africa's domestic competition while two South Africans will stand in Duleep Trophy games in India. CSA has a similar programme with New Zealand Cricket for the past 11 seasons.

4 comments:

Damith S. said...

This sounds like a very good idea. The world is in dire need for some quality umpires.

Hopefully we will see some of these guys come up the ranks.

Cheers homer. And thanks for stopping by :)

Homer said...

Damith,

To be quite honest, I really dont care if any of the Indian umpires make the "step up" to world cricket.

What I care, and passionately, is that the quality of umpiring within India improve - because our cricket deserves it.

And if that means officiating in foreign domestic competitions or ICC mandated games, so be it.

Cheers,

Damith S. said...

Ideally you'd like to see some of these umpires make the step up, because the current elite panel is useless.

Hopefully with more of these umpires getting into such exchange programmes, the standards all over will improve gradually.

Homer said...

Damith,

It is because the current Elite Panel is so useless that I would rather Indian umpires not be a part of it.

Cheers,