Umpiring

New ICC panel to pick Elite umpires

Nagraj Gollapudi

April 16, 2008

	Malcolm Speed: "The umpires on the Elite Panel are chosen as the best umpires, with each country nominating two umpires to the international panel and these umpires are chosen to umpire Tests and ODIs" © Getty Images

With umpiring standards recently coming under the scanner in several countries, the ICC has responded by appointing a new panel to pick and evaluate the international and Elite umpires. Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, said the old procedure, where he and Sunil Gavaskar, ICC's cricket committee chairman, picked up the umpires, would now be scrapped.

"The pair will now be replaced by a new four-member panel consisting of David Richardson, ICC general manger of cricket, Ranjan Madugalle, chief referee, David Lloyd, former England coach and a commentator and S Venkataraghavan, former Indian captain and umpire", Speed said in Mumbai.

The ICC will also now be expanding the Elite Panel's strength by adding two new members to the existing 10.

The new selection process, Speed said, would give equal opportunities to umpires from various member countries.

"The umpires on the Elite Panel are chosen as the best umpires, with each country nominating two umpires to the international panel and these umpires are chosen to umpire Tests and ODIs. So the two Indian umpires who come on to the international panel they will be considered along with the rest for inclusion in the Elite Panel."

Meanwhile Speed once again reiterated that the ICC had left the decision to Gavaskar on whether he wanted to continue heading the ICC cricket committee and stop writing his syndicated columns. Last year, Gavaskar was appointed for a three-year term as the chairman of the cricket committee. But the ICC board is now concerned about his role as a commentator and journalist and it has decided that the chairman should be a non-practising journalist.

"I've explained that carefully to Sunny who accepts that and after the cricket committee meeting he will choose [whether] to continue as chairman or as a journalist.

"There are no guidelines at the moment but he has been the chairman for a long time. It hasn't been an issue up until now, but it's become an issue and the decision has been made. It's sensible that the chairman of the committee is not a journalist and not commenting on issues that involve other employees or consultants of ICC."

Nagraj Gollapudi is an assistant editor at Cricinfo

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