The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has decided to reconsider the matter of appointing the higher-ranked umpires in Ranji Trophy after Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB)’s has requested for it.
Recently, the CAB joint secretary Avishek Dalmiya wrote a letter to BCCI raising the concern to not considering 5 to 32 ranked umpires for officiating Ranji Trophy matches that will be played in this December.
According to IANS, that CAB letter claimed, “I am constrained to write this mail to you regarding the posting of the BCCI umpires allocated by the Board for the upcoming matches to be played in December 2018.
“In this regard, you are aware that ranking of umpires for the season has been done by the BCCI and as part that, the highest ranking umpires are given the priority when allotments are done.
“However, we’ve been given to understand that despite the above policy in place, yesterday when the allotment were made, it was observed that while one to four ranked umpires were given postings in Ranji Trophy games, 5 to 32 ranked umpires were not considered for posting in Ranji Trophy matches to be played in December.
“The most surprising factor here is that again, the umpires who are ranked 33-35 in Group C were considered for Ranji Trophy matches.”
In reply, BCCI has claimed that they will surely relook at the match allocations to ensure that some top-ranked umpires are posted for Ranji matches.
The BCCI replied, “I am sure you would appreciate the fact that we have 115 umpires from which we have to manage the domestic matches appointments keeping in mind the travelling of umpires from one venue to the other.
“However, we will definitely relook at the match allocations to ensure that top eight ranked umpires from Group C, no matter which association they belong to, are posted for Ranji matches.”
When Dalmiya was asked about his view on BCCI’s reply, he seemed enough satisfied as he called that was a routine matter without any big concern.
According to IANS, Dalmiya said, “It’s a routine matter and we don’t want to make an issue out of it. We wrote the letter in good faith and the BCCI has assured us that the matter would be looked into.”
