The umpires’ sub-committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India met at the National Cricket Academy here on Thursday for appraisals.
The committee decided to nominate S. Ravi and Vineet Kulkarni (both on-field) and C. Shamsuddin and Anil Chaudhary (both off-field) to the ICC’s International Panel.
Chaudhary will be the new face among the Indians on the International Panel and is set to replace Sudhir Asnani.
BCCI vice-president Niranjan Shah said the meeting was about umpire appraisals over the past year and also about appointments for the new season. “The general consensus was that the quality of umpires here in India has steadily improved ever since we brought in the review-system over the last four to five years. We were also supposed to recommend four umpires to the ICC International Panel,” he said.
The fact that India has no representation in the Elite Panel came up for discussion during the meeting and according to R. Sudhakar Rao, the South Zone representative, the sub-committee felt that there are umpires, who have the potential to be a part of that panel and it is a matter of time before they make the grade.