Ever since his humble beginning when he officiated in the local leagues in late 80s, 42-year-old Chettithod Shamshuddin has made tremendous progress as a cricket umpire. His efficient way of officiating a match earned him accolades and then got him the chance to become a Board panel umpire in 2007. After that he made his debut in Ranji Trophy in 2009-10 season and three years later, Shamshuddin graduated to the International Cricket Council (ICC) panel of Indian umpires.
The Hyderabad umpire replaced S Tarapore as one of the four in the Indian list for the new season. He thereby became the third umpire from the city to be in the ICC panel after VK Ramaswamy and Ivaturi Shivram. Shamshuddin will officiate as one of the third umpires in international matches. Given his fine record, it will be matter of time before he gets the next posting of on-field umpiring. “It is a big challenge for me. I have to stand up to the challenges,” said Shamshuddin.
Shivram, who has been one of the finest umpires that the country has produced, feels Shamshuddin has a good future. “I appreciate the way he handles the matches. He is a confident umpire and he is a good learner,” he said.
Shamshuddin started his career as an all-rounder for Bharatiya Club in C Division. Somewhere during this time, he began to take a liking to umpiring. “To be honest, I was inspired by Ramaswamy and Shivram. I thought it was a very challenging job. I was only 23 years old then. So I decided to play on Sundays and other days I would do umpiring. It was a more of a part-time job. It soon became a passion and, so much so, I even umpired some big matches like the Syndicate Bank, Andhra Bank, State Bank of India which had big players like Shivlal Yadav, SL Venkatapathy Raju and others. I think by umpiring in these matches,which thought I was one of the toughest, made me a good umpire. These were high pressure matches,” recalls Shamshuddin, who umpired alongside Shivram and Ramaswamy.
Shamshuddin learnt a trick or two from Shivram. “I could learn a lot from Shivram. His vital inputs were crucial to my career,” he said. Although he officiated as umpire in local matches, he never left the game and was impressive as an all-rounder for Finecab in the local division. But he discontinued playing and totally concentrated in umpiring in the late nineties. “This is the time where I left I could make a mark as an umpire rather than a player,” he said.
His first posting in BCCI matches came in 2007 when he officiated in the South Zone under-22 match at Visakhapatnam.
But after that there was no looking back and he got the big break in 2009-10 season by umpiring in Ranji Trophy matches.
It was a steady climb in the last three seasons before he got the chance to officiate as on-field umpire in five matches in IPL this season.
After IPL was over he got the bigger break by being selected to the ICC panel of Indian umpires Shamshuddin believes fitness, good sleep, umpiring at the nets, good diet and self-confidence are the key factors to become a good umpire. “Self-confidence is very important and of course a umpire has to be thorough with the laws,” said Shamshuddin, who is set to embark on a new journey.