I nearly missed this story on Cricinfo. Three umpires — Mark Benson (England), Billy Doctrove (West Indies) and Asad Rauf (Pakistan) — have been added to the elite panel of umpires, making it 10-strong. So, now there are three Australians (Daryl Harper, Simon Taufel, Darrell Hair), two Pakistanis (Aleem Dar), two West Indians (Steve Bucknor), one Kiwi (Billy Bowden), one South African (Rudi Koertzen) and one Englishman comprising the elite panel. This will bring some much-needed relief to their already-high workload, which was further increased by the retirement of David Shepherd last year.
<whisper> This might also be a good time to pop a pill and fire Bucknor. </whisper>
April 10, 2006 at 6:42 am
Curious, why exactly is there no umpire from India for the past two or so years, since Venkat’s retired.
April 10, 2006 at 1:47 pm
Funny…are there ANY good Indian umpires since Venkat’s retirement? I don’t think so. Being an Indian, it’s hard for me to say that, but it’s the truth.
April 10, 2006 at 2:10 pm
Meh. I don’t care so much about India producing top umpires as I do about India producing top players.
April 11, 2006 at 12:58 am
India has always produced top players - vishwanath, gavaskar, kapil, sachin, kumble, dravid. However, all that talent hasn’t translated into a TOP team. I am still waiting for a team that can dominate an entire decade - like the WIs of the 70s-80s and the current Aussie team.