Bangladeshi umpires are not good enough to conduct matches at the highest level, said a senior official of the Bangladesh Cricket Board on Thursday, adding that a massive improvement is needed to make them capable. The International Cricket Council have recently selected 20 umpires and five match referees for the World Cup 2015 to be staged in Australia and New Zealand without including any Bangladeshis.
Bangladesh has currently three umpires from the ICC international panel – Enamul Haq, Sharfuddoula Ibne Saikat and Anisur Rahman – but none could make the list.
‘Our umpires are not good enough to make it to the World Cup,’ BCB chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury told reporters on Thursday. ‘The ICC assesses the umpires through their performance in the bilateral series and accordingly selects them for the ICC events.
‘Our umpires are not considered in the ICC World Cup and ICC Champions Trophy mainly because of their on-field performances,’ he said. ‘Also they lack communication skill, which is a major hindrance at international level.’
Former national captain and match referee Roquibul Hassan thinks that lack of technologies in domestic matches did not allow the umpires to know their shortcomings.
Roquibul also suggested the BCB to follow the modern methods of assessing the umpires, which will help them to improve.
‘There should be video footage of our domestic cricket,’ said Roquibul. ‘Unless we have that, it is very difficult to show the local umpires their shortcomings.
BCB have four elite panel umpires, 11 national panel umpires, 23 regional panel umpires, 64 district panel umpires and 121 trainee panel umpires in their repertoire.
Currently the match referees evaluate these umpires in old fashioned –good, bad, poor– style but officials insisted that they should be evaluated in numeric order and get specific number for specific decisions.
BCB’s umpires committee chairman Nazmul Karim said they are actively thinking of using video cameras in the Super League matches of the Dhaka Premier League in order to help the umpires improve.
The standard of local umpires was also questioned by some DPL teams with holders Legends of Rupganj publicly expressing their reservation about certain umpires.
BCB chief executive Nizamuddin said they are taking few steps to help the umpires improve their skill.
Part of the plan is sending few selected umpires to British Council to improve their communication skills, which is a must at international level.
Officials said, among the Bangladeshi umpires of ICC international panel only Sharfuddoula is capable enough to communicate with international players.
Former national cricketer Enamul Haq appeared last in recent ICC assessment about its 19 international umpires, which reduced his chances of getting matches in ICC events.
Sharfuddoula is expected to conduct some matches in Dubai in the upcoming ODI tournament.
ICC umpires manager Vince van der Bijl will arrive on January 12 on a three-day visit to Bangladesh to oversee the recent development work of the umpires.
-With New Age input
