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BCCI Introduces New Category For Umpires After Council Meet

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has introduced a new A+ category for Indian umpires. The latest introduced category sees Nitin Menon, who is often recognized as the only Indian umpire in the ICC Elite Panel be a part of the same alongside 9 other officials.

Apart from Menon, BCCI’s latest A+ category has four international umpires in Madangopal Jayaraman, Anil Chaudhary and KN Ananthapadmabhanan and Virender Kumar Sharma. The remaining 5 names who are also a named in the newly introduced category are Navdeep Singh Sidhu, Sadashiv Iyer, Rohan Pandit, Ulhas Gandhe and Nikhil Patwardhan.

BCCI decided upon the complete list of the umpires while placing them in different groups during their Apex Council meeting on Thursday. The Group A, slotted right below A+ category consists of 20 BCCI Umpires with the Group B filled with 60 match officials. 46 umpires find themselves in Group C with the last group seeing 11 umpires fill up Group D.

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The differentiation of umpires in groups also affects the pay scale made to the BCCI officials. The top tier umpires who find themselves slotted in the category A+ and A are rumoured to earn INR 40,000 a day per first-class game. The Group B and Group C are set to pocket INR 30,000 a day for every first-class match they officiate.

BCCI official comments on new A+ category

The list of umpires has been deemed as ‘gradation of umpires’ with a BCCI official stating how the Indian cricket board has created groups rather than grading the officials. The Indian cricket board’s official was quoted by PTI saying, “It is not grading. There are groups with A+ being the new category. A+ and A, one can say form the cream of Indian umpires. Umpires in B and C category are also good.”

The un-named source added, “When it comes to assigning duties across domestic events starting at the top with Ranji Trophy, preference will be given group wise. The grouping has been done after reviewing the performances of the 2021-2022 season.”

The BCCI official was also asked upon the possibility of seeing Indian umpires being a part of the ICC Elite Panel. He said, “We put too much emphasis on the elite panel. Only England has three umpires in the elite panel, Australia has two and the rest only one. You can only have so much there. The focus should be on improving standard of umpiring at all levels.”

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