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by - (SNNI)
 Ranatunga,
now the chief of Sri Lanka Cricket, is concerned by the
number of high-profile errors made recently by members of
the International Cricket Council's elite panel.
The wrong interpretation of bad light rules saw last year's
World Cup final end in farce and a row broke out after several
mistakes in last week's controversial second Test between
Australia and India in Sydney.
Ranatunga, who led Sri Lanka to World Cup glory in 1996,
believes using more local officials could help improve matters.
"Taking the present status quo into consideration,
even the ICC elite umpires who are neutral seem to be making
mistakes," he said.
"In my personal view, I think they should employ two
local umpires to stand at the matches while an elite umpire
assisted by the match referee would guide the two umpires
with dicey decisions that they are uncertain of.
"In this manner I feel that the local umpiring standards
will also improve in the respective countries.
"Sri Lanka and India, despite playing in the highest
division, do not have an umpire in the elite panel. This
means that there is stagnation among the local ranks."
The 44-year-old, who played 93 Tests and 269 one-day internationals,
also reckons umpires should be punished for mistakes.
He said: "The two ICC representatives will also scrutinise
the performance of two local umpires.
"If the ICC representatives feel there is an element
of bias in any of the local umpires they will have the liberty
to report them to the ICC and the ICC in turn will impose
a ban on the local umpires (for one or two years) depending
on the gravity of the mistakes."SPORTINGLIFE
Courtesy - SNNI |