The TNCA Umpiring Sub Committee finally comes of age
Under the Chairmanship of Madanagopal, the team of Ashwin Kumar, Rakesh Raghavan and Rajesh Kannan has come out with a first of its kind comprehensive document for TNCA league Umpires aligning with the BCCI playing conditions and taking into account playing under the Covid Scenario
It is also hoped that this Umpiring Committee will be able to secure a fair fee for TNCA Umpires during their tenure
For over two decades, the annual pre season booklet from the TNCA was a simple document comprising only the basic information about the playing conditions. For the first time in TNCA’s history, the Umpire’s Sub-Committee under the Chairmanship of BCCI umpire JR Madanagopal (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2021/05/jr-madanagopal-ipl-umpire-2021-and.html) has come out with a comprehensive and exhaustive over 150 pages document for umpires that goes into minute details of the playing conditions for the new TNCA league season that starts this Wednesday.
The ground work for this started in April just before Madanagopal was to leave for his IPL stint and the document has been completed just ahead of his departure ahead of IPL - Phase II in the UAE. The thought process began when another BCCI umpire R Rajesh Kannan (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2015/06/rajesh-kannan-bcci-board-umpire.html) sat with Madanagopal to discuss the possibility of churning out an exhaustive document that would serve as a ready reckoner for TNCA league umpires.
Soon after this early brainstorming session, Madanagopal left for IPL while Rajesh Kannan sat with his umpiring colleagues M Ashwin Kumar and Rakesh Raghavan to chalk out the plans for this first of its kind document.
Talking to this writer, Rajesh Kannan said that he sought the permission and availability of Ashwin Kumar to prepare the framework for this document after the TNCA league committee approved the commissioning of a new extensive booklet “It was Ashwin who got down into the details of the BCCI playing conditions. Our objective was to align this booklet with the BCCI playing conditions so the aspiring umpires who are looking at BCCI as their next phase of professional growth could get an all inclusive document in one go.”
A month long exercise
It took a great deal of foresight, time and effort from Ashwin to look into every law in cricket and to get into the playing conditions for each and every law where the TNCA umpires would have looked for an explanation/clarification. “Each day of the month, Ashwin worked out the specific playing conditions relating to a few laws and sent us those pages. We (Rakesh Raghavan and me) then looked into it to see if any additions/ modifications were required” said Rajesh Kannan.
After spending several hours each day for over a month and regular exchange of ideas and thoughts, the combo of Ashwin Kumar, Rakesh Raghavan and Rajesh Kannan came up with an over 150 pages booklet for the umpires. They presented this to their Chairman Madanagopal for his comments who had by then returned from the truncated IPL.
Making Life easy for TNCA umpires
Finally in August shortly after the completion of the TNPL, the umpires sub-committee led by Madanagopal has come up with a document – a booklet of 174 pages - that is sure to be a delight for every umpire in the TNCA. From the very concept to its final implementation, it has been a great team work that has resulted in making life extremely easy for the TNCA umpires.
Too large a Size
However, not all were in sync with such a large sized document. Some of the senior long standing umpires of the TNCA told this writer that this was too large in size for one's liking and that it was unlikely that too many would read a document of this size.
Another senior umpire was of the view that this could have been broken up into separate booklets based on divisions and on tournaments ( multi day v one day v T20 and division 1/2/ 3-5) to make for easier reading. The umpire also opined that typically local umpires, especially those in the lower divisions, do not use phones to read documents and hence smaller sized booklets customised as above would have been a better option. He asked as to how many of the TNCA umpires would read in full a 174 page document.
While aligning with the BCCI’s playing conditions, the team also took into account the scenario in which the new season that starts on Wednesday (Sept 1) will be played. Given that lockdown and Covid restrictions are still in force in the country, the document also comprises sections specifically relating to umpiring under the Covid Scenario. For example, the penalties for using spit during the course of play and the number of substitutes permitted.
Bad Light has also been a controversial subject in Cricket. This team has also provided relevant guidance relating to the playing conditions that are applicable on this oft contested area.
Finally, the TNCA umpiring committee has come of age going away from the standard one hour meeting ahead of the season opener that had become the norm in previous decades and the responsibility to post umpires for matches to now thinking out of the box and understanding the issues that umpires faced on the ground and to provide them with a pro active document that any umpire from the first to the sixth division could easily refer to ahead of matches.
This document is sure to serve as a benchmark in Indian Cricket for other associations in the country to follow.
A Fair Fee for TNCA Umpires?
For a long time, it has been a plea of the TNCA umpires to raise the fee to a fair level. While their work on this truly exhaustive document is commendable, it is hoped that this committee comprising of BCCI umpires will also look into the issue relating to the low fees paid to TNCA umpires and secure them a fair fee for their service.