Indian Umpires Defended

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32119, 15 October 1969, Page 17

Indian Umpires Defended

MADRAS. Mr S. Sriraman, secretary of the Indian cricket board of control, has described as “baseless and unwarranted” reported allegations by the former Australian captain, R. T. Simpson, on Indian umpiring. Commenting on an article by Simpson published in an Australian newspaper, Mr Sriraman said that, coming as it did just on the eve of the test series between Australia and India, the comment was “not in goqd taste” and would only mar the cordial relationships between the two countries. Referring to an allegation that at a match in 1964 an umpire “was in the habit of stepping out of his shoes and storing them nearby beside him when at square leg,” Mr

Sriraman said it was “absolutely baseless.” It was “only a figment of his imagination born out of prejudice with a definite purpose of ridiculing the umpire.” At the Bombay test in 1964, Mr Sriraman said, both the umpires were experienced and it was unbelievable that they did not know where to stand when they were umpiring at square leg.

It was “absolutely untrue that the manager of the Australian team marked out a line on the ground in line with the popping crease and told the umpire where to stand.” Mr Sriraman said: “It appeared to be true that the Australians tried to instruct the umpires where they should stand—-but were told to mind their business.” He said a reported incident of an umpire “fasting” was “completely irrelevant.” “A person cannot obviously

be appointed to umpire a test match just because he goes on a fast,” he contended, and added that this particular person was never on the panel of umpires of the board.

Mr Sriraman said the umpires on tbe panel of the Indian board were proficient in the laws of the game. The umpires appointed for test matches were persons with considerable experience and men of very high integrity. No visiting team or its board had lodged any protest against the standard of umpiring in the country, he said. But, on the other hand, there had been instances of “international captains being ignorant of the laws of the game.”

Mr Sriraman said that Simpson, during the Calcutta test in 1964, while he was batting, “under the pretext of light, even without informing the umpires or the captain of the fielding side,” walked off the field. Mr Sriraman did not know

if this was either due to the ignorance of the law or lack of courtesy or disregard to the umpires by an international captain.

The umpires had to tell Simpson after he had returned to the pavilion that he had left the crease without making an appeal against the light. Mr Sriraman said Simpson’s “vapourings” were not surprising since he had not been known to take kindly “to reverses on the cricket field.”

The incidents Simpson had referred to were in the 1964 series at Bombay where India won by two wickets and the series ended one-all. Mr Sriraman said it was indeed sad that an international captain should have come forward with such a statement which was ‘'inopportune” and appeared intended to prejudice “the visiting Australian team against Indian umpires.”