Local umpires to officiate Tests in home soil
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|| CF Correspondent ||
Bangladesh local umpires like the other countries will soon be getting the opportunity to officiate Test matches on home turf during and after the COVID-19 pandemic scenario.
The Cricket Committee of International Cricket Council (ICC) on Monday recommended the appointment of local match officials (umpires) and match referees) on the short-term basis to avoid international travel in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
The ICC has always placed neutral umpires to officiate matches in Test cricket. Though local umpires have been seen participating in limited over matches but the scenario is quite different in the red-ball games.
Owing to the coronavirus travel restriction situation, the door seems now to be open for the local umpires, who can officiate Tests after the matches get started again.
However, the countries where there were no elite panel umpires for so long, the international panel umpires will now be appointed.
Bangladesh had no umpire in the ICC 12-member elite panel, even not on the ICC’s list of emerging umpires. But Sharfuddaula Saikat, Masudur Rahman Mukul, Tanbir Ahmed and Gazi Sohel are in the international panel.
Four umpires are mandatory to cover a Test match. There remain two umpires on the field coupled with a TV umpire and a fourth umpire. As a result, the four umpires of Bangladesh’s who are in the international panels will have got the opportunity to officiate Test matches that will take place in the post-COVID-19 era, if the ICC approves the ICC cricket panel’s recommendations in June.
Two umpires from the host country haven’t allowed operating Test matches since 2002. The ICC in 1994 made mandatory the appointment of a neutral umpire for every Test match, which was extended after eight years.
Only four Bangladesh umpires have officiated in five Tests so far in their 20-year-long Test history. Former bowler-turned-umpire Enamul Haque Moni conducted matches between Zimbabwe and New Zealand as a neutral umpire in Napier in 2012. AFM Akhtaruzzaman officiated in two Tests and
Mahbubur Rahman, Shawkatur Rahman conducted one Test each before the ICC’s rule of neutral umpires.
This time the umpires of the present time have ‘unexpectedly’ got a big opportunity. If the umpires can take the advantage of this opportunity to attract the attention of the ICC, they will be able to enter in the ICC’s elite panel in future, as well as can conduct big team matches as neutral umpires.
The umpires are also worried about whether there will be a Test on home soil in the near future. New Zealand has a schedule to come here in Bangladesh in August. If the Kiwis hold their tour in due time, the dreams of the local umpires will then be fulfilled from that series.
Not only umpires, match referees are also part of this recommendation. Akhter Ahmed and Ruhul Niyamur Rashid Rahul from Bangladesh are international panels match referees of ICC. Anyone of them will be seen in the Test as a match referee on home territory.
Abdullah Al Noman Ovi, in charge of the BCB Umpires Committee, acknowledged the matter, stating that they can move forward if the umpires can capitalize on the opportunity.
“This is a good and big chance for the local umpires to officiate Tests in home soil,” Abdullah Al Noman Ovi said.
“If our umpires can utilize the chance, they can be worked out of the country. In this way, they can move forward and step into the elite panel of the world cricket apex governing body in future,” Ovi told Cricfrenzy.
