Lucknow: Unqualified umpires leave city cricket on a sticky wicket

Are unqualified umpires fixing matches in Lucknow? The Cricket Association Lucknow (CAL) is getting such complaints from clubs/units on a regular basis, according to officials.

Newly-appointed chief operating officer and former central zone cricketer Ashok Bambi on Monday said, “It’s really shameful and crime against cricketers. I am flooded with complaints against umpires. It seems many of them are fixing matches. I have started working on the complaints and things will be alright soon.”

He assured no unqualified umpire would be allowed to do umpiring in knockout matches. “We are short of qualified umpires but no unqualified umpire will be engaged for knockout matches,” he added.

The issue of unqualified umpires allegedly involved in match-fixing again came to the fore on Monday during the C division league semi-final at the Paarth Republic Ground when an umpire, after giving out to a player, decided to revert his decision after discussing with the batsman himself.

This, however, irked the rival team and their players sat on the ground in protest. The umpire, who allegedly has the patronage of a CAL official, not only threatened players with dire consequences but asked the team’s officials to impose a ban on them as he has ‘good connection’ in CAL.

Hearing about the 30-minute halt in the match, CAL officials intervened and got the match restarted. Though the umpire declared the batsman out, he allegedly turned down many a leg before wicket appeals of the team.

CAL officials accepted that many umpires, including the one who was engaged for the Monday’s match, have the backing of a journalist from a Hindi daily, and was allegedly running a parallel system to the CAL.

They alleged a former Ranji Trophy cricketer of UP, who was accused of trading cricketers for banned Indian Cricket League in the past, was also involved in this umpiring racket.

The standard of umpiring in Lucknow is such that most of the unqualified umpires can be seen talking on their mobile phones during the match. One of the cricketers was given LBW, even though the ball was missing the stumps, after he raised the objection over the umpire talking on phone during the match.

“The journalist in question books the ground for Rs 650 and sublets it to some needy person for Rs 3,000-5,000. He then shares the extra money with people involved,” said a CAL insider.

Confirming the complaints against unqualified umpires, CAL’s umpiring committee chairman Naeem Chisti said CAL would conduct first-ever examinations, seminar and even refresher courses for the umpires in July this year.

“Out of seven qualified umpires, only four are working. Managing so many matches in a day is difficult for us. We have received applications from more than 50 candidates for umpiring exams in July,” he said, adding, “Umpires in local matches get Rs 650 per match. All unqualified umpires will be banned soon.”

Interestingly, Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association has already directed all its district units, including CAL in March this year not to let the unqualified umpires do the umpiring in the officials matches. “Every unit must have a three-member umpires committee at the district level so that qualified and experienced umpires could be produced to do the job at the official matches. Involvement of BCCI Level-1 and Leven-2 is also a must,” states a letter of UPCA.