Umpiring - International and otherwise

Although I do not wish to raise many names, Aleem Dar and Simon Taufel have consistently performed exceedingly well. Although Dar along with Bucknor created a bit of a blunder, labelled the ‘biggest farce in the recent history of international cricket’ towards the concluding stages of the final of The Cricket World Cup 2007, Dar has not committed a major error in some time. But that very incident can have only one justification; that being insufficient knowledge of the laws and conditions of play as specified by the ICC.

Umpires in the international circuit of late have been suspect under pressure. The pressure of the match situation at that particular point of time is getting to them. The only plausible reason as to why this pressure gets to even umpires is that the umpires realise that in that particular situation, every decision that comes their way is crucial.

Cricket umpiring is rated one of the toughest jobs in the world. This job is certainly underrated. It is even under rated by the players (at a juniour level.) Umpiring requires the concentration of the umpire throughout the six hours of play on all continuous five days of a test match which is a tough job. A large number of the players, at least when their team is batting, get some time out of the sun. But there is no break for umpires, the umpires have to supervise the rolling of the pitch (if turf,) marking of the crease, etc., during the breaks.

Thus, criticising the umpires is not correct.-BS