BANGALORE: Having a former cricketer-turned-umpire as the chairman of the Umpires’ committee has its own rewards — he can lure and even inspire former players to take to umpiring. AV Jayaprakash, who retired from the ICC Panel last year, is doing precisely that. The former Syndicate Bank and Karnataka and South Zone all rounder’s colleague Shavir Tarapore too become an umpire and is now in the ICC panel. Doing his bit to raise umpiring standards, Jayaprakash and BK Ravi, the KSCA assistant secretary, have joined hands to rope in more such cricketers to don the white hat.
Two former players, who still turn out for their teams in club cricket, Ramesh of State Bank of Mysore and Shyam Ponnappa of Vijaya Bank, are aspiring to raise their fingers high and definite.The Association of Cricket Umpires of Karnataka was more than happy to lend its supporting shoulder when the offer to conduct a state-wide seminar-cum-refresher course came from BK Ravi and Jayaprakash.
"If playing standards are to improve, the quality of umpiring must also improve. We’ve had some very good umpires doing Karnataka proud at the national and international panel. Right now, only Shavir is there. So we hit upon this idea. We have nearly 50 new faces who turned up and most of the qualified umpires also came forward to learn and improve their knowledge,’’ said Ravi.
``We have started it in Bangalore and will take this all over the state. Our intention is to conduct such programmes in every district and tap potential talent. Also, this will give a chance to people to get into umpiring,’’ Ravi added.
“After retirement, through umpiring I can keep in touch with the game. That’s the main reason why I want to become an umpire,’’ said Ramesh.“It was either coaching or umpiring after playing days are over. But I don’t like coaching so I want to become an umpire,’’ averred Shyam. "Well, umpires now have a lot of technological support. It is good as it reduces mistakes. But at lower levels, we are on our own. So long as the players respect you, you have done a good job,’’ said Shyam. "I think technology must be limited to just run-outs and stumping,’’ said Ramesh.
The KSCA’s venture to improve the quality must be appreciated. For only from quantity can you get quality. So far so good, How’s that!