The IPL Governing Council is planning to assign an umpire specifically to check “no balls” after facing a plethora of howlers in the past few seasons led to heightened concerns about the quality of Indian match officials. It was also learned that the much-hyped ‘Power Player’ concept of implementing substitutions during IPL matches was shelved for the time being as the project can’t be piloted during the upcoming Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (National T20), starting later this week.

The GC headed by Brijesh Patel met at the cricket headquarters to discuss a slew of issues including FTP window, availability of foreign players, FTP of Team India and the possibility of franchises playing friendlies abroad. However, the major point of discussion was to have an exclusive umpire to check on the contentious front-foot and height no balls.

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Talking about the same, a senior GC member said, “If all goes well, during the next Indian Premier League, you could see another umpire apart from the regular umpires just to “observe” no-balls. The concept sounds weird, but this was among the issues discussed in the first IPL Governing Council meeting which was held here. We want to use technology. We are having another umpire for only observing no-balls. There will be an umpire, who will be focused on no-balls only. And he will not be a third or fourth umpire.”

There was a lot of buzz during the last IPL when some debatable decisions were taken with regards to front-foot no-balls. The India skipper Virat Kohli even had a heated conversation with umpire S Ravi, who failed to spot a no-ball by Mumbai Indians’ Sri Lankan legend Lasith Malinga, which cost Royal Challengers Bangalore a match.

Before taking the final call, the concept of having such umpires could be tried at any of the domestic tournament. On the concept of ‘Power Player’, the official said: “The matter was discussed but there is too little time to implement during the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, which starts on Friday, November 8.”

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As per the reports of the PTI, there was little or no possibility of ‘Power Player’ being introduced for the time being without consent of BCCI president Sourav Ganguly. A concept like this could send the potential bookies and match-fixers on an overdrive.