3 best Indian umpires of all time
Umpiring is a tough and equally thankless job, especially when the stakes are high.
India's T20 World Cup encounter against Pakistan on Sunday, inarguably the biggest game of the year yet, gave the perfect example of this. After a debatable final over no-ball by Mohammad Nawaz to Virat Kohli went for a six, the umpires Marais Erasmus and Rod Tucker, who gave the call, were abused and trolled as corrupt on social media.
Over the years, due to various reasons, India has failed to produce a large number of good umpires. Below are three who made it to the top:
#1 Srinivas Venkataraghavan
A supremely accurate off-spinner originally, Venkataraghavan was many things - captain, selector, manager, referee and pundit. But after his 161 international wickets (from 57 Tests and 15 ODIs), his biggest feat was his umpiring prowess.
Even in his playing career, 'Venkat' had an image of knowing more about the rules than some of the umpires. So his transition to umpiring was quite seamless when he made his officiating debut in an ODI between India and England in Jaipur in January 1993, 10 years after his retirement in 1983.
In a more than a decade-long umpiring career, Venkat officiated 73 Tests and 52 ODIs, including six Ashes and three World Cups. He became the first Indian to have been included in the ICC Elite Panel of Umpires in 2002. Around that time, he had told Gulf News about his journey from an elite cricketer to an elite umpire, saying:
"I've always been interested in the laws of cricket as a player and captain. I used to have a lot of discussions with the umpires and I used to make it a point to learn as much as possible about the laws of the game. Suddenly the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) came out with a novel idea.
"Those who had played more than 45 first class matches had to attend only the oral exams, and not the written one, to become an umpire. So I went for it. And as I like watching cricket, I don't think there is a better place to watch cricket than from the middle."
A couple of difficult officiating years followed the induction and Venkat retired in 2004 as one of the most respected umpires in the world. He still owns the unique feat of playing and umpiring in more than 50 Test matches.
#2 Nitin Menon
A right-handed batter who played 2 List A games for Madhya Pradesh, Nitin Menon is third and currently the only Indian in the ICC Elite Panel of Umpires. Menon lost motivation for the game in his early 20s when his father, Narendra Menon, also a first-class cricketer and an umpire, advised him to take up officiating.
He gave the BCCI's umpiring exam in 2006 and started enjoying the job in his first year. He made his umpiring debut in 2007, and since then has officiated in 18 Tests, 33 ODIs and 50 T20Is, apart from over 200 first-class and IPL matches.
His mental strength while dealing with the who's who of international cricket in the IPL has been brilliant to watch over the years. India's high-pressure Test series against England last year saw him notch a 83.87 percent success rate in on-field calls.
It was a masterclass of composed umpiring in a series where tensions between the two teams' fans ran high and every pitch was questioned for being "too-friendly" for spinners.
He was included in the Elite Panel in the 2020-21 season at the age of 36, becoming the youngest member of the club. He's currently the only umpire representing India at the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia.
#3 Sundaram Ravi
S Ravi, as he is more popularly known, is one of the few umpires who made it big despite not playing any first-class cricket. He took up umpiring for the same reason as many others in the art - to stay in touch with the game after playing.
Ravi made his umpiring debut in 2011 in an ODI match between India and West Indies. The second-most capped Indian umpire (58 Tests, 81 ODIs and 30 T20Is) after Venkat, Ravi was in the Elite Panel for four years on the trot from 2015.
Ravi's career took off after a brilliant series between England and New Zealand in 2015. He followed it up with a season to remember in 2016 where he was seen in every important match in the world - including the first-ever pink-ball Test.
Interestingly, Ravi didn't officiate in any Test in India until 2017. But by then, he was well past his peak. He was criticized for getting a few calls wrong during England's tour of Sri Lanka the following year. In 2019, he failed to spot a last-ball no-ball in an IPL match between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Mumbai Indians (MI), courting massive flak even from the then RCB skipper Virat Kohli.
Although he was part of the 2019 World Cup officials' group, he was removed from the ICC panel the following season.