Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid as Umpires? Game on, Says Simon Taufel
Five-time ICC Umpire of the Year award winner Simon Taufel urges cricketers to respect Indian umpires and says they - especially Indian players - should understand that it is only human to make the rare mistake.
It is not easy being a cricketer but it is outright tough officiating a match in the highly-charged and closely followed contemporary world of cricket. So when a five-time winner of ICC Umpire of the Year says mistakes are inevitable part of an umpire's job, it must be. (Also read: When Sachin's driving gave headaches to wife Anjali)
Simon Taufel has long been considered one of the finest umpires to ever officiate international cricket matches. Currently in India to advise and mentor BCCI's Elite panel of umpires, Taufel feels his Indian colleagues have a tougher job at hand as they do not get respect they deserve from national cricketers.
"What I would like to see more in India is players respecting how difficult umpiring is; maybe try it themselves. It would be great to see a Rahul Dravid or a Sachin Tendulkar donning a white coat," Taufel was quoted as saying in an ESPNcricinfo report.
"We would love the players to appreciate and show equal empathy for the difficult nature of our job, appreciate that better umpires get it right, that we are human beings after all."
Taufel though, appreciated the 'progress' made by Indian umpires in recent times.
"When I joined the IPL in the second season (2009), there were no Indian umpires in the play-offs. Here we are six years later, we have got the highest number of Indian umpires involved in the play-offs," he said.
"That tells me, tells the rest of the world and tells the Indian umpires that people who are selecting them for those matches had faith and trust in the performance abilities of those umpires." As many as 17 of the 26 match officials in IPL 2015 were Indians.
The holy grail for umpires - the ICC Elite Panel - however has continued to elude Indians since Srinivas Venkatraghavan left the panel in 2004. Taufel though wants the world to focus on the positive strides made in recent years of international cricket.
"There have been a lot of success stories over the last few years. We have had Indian umpires officiating at the World Cup and we have two umpires going to the World Twenty20 qualifiers," Taufel noted.
"Our focus is to improve Indian domestic umpiring. We have produced four quality International Panel umpires. They are doing extremely well and one of them (S Ravi) is officiating at Lord's in a Test match."
Whether Indian umpires are further able to establish themselves in the international stage remains to be seen. Unnder the guidance of Taufel though, they can only improve and fine-tune their abilities - one that Taufel feels ought to be respected by the cricketers on the field.