Keen to have a representation in the ICC's Elite panel of Umpires, the BCCI is all set to set up a National Umpires Academy in the country to improve the standard of officials.
The decision was taken at the BCCI's umpires sub-committee, which is headed by Board Treasurer Ravi Sawant.
"There would be a National Umpires Academy in the country. There would also be academies at the zonal level because the standard of umpiring in India needs to be improved," Sawant said after the meeting here.
Sawant rued that the existing facilities to train umpires are not being put to optimum use. He also lamented the lack of proper facilities to train match referees.
"Though there are training facilities and they appear for exams but there is no such provision for match referees. Through this academy there would be better coordination between umpires and match referees," he said.
India has not had representation in the ICC's Elite panel since 2004 when the retirement of Srinivas Venkataraghavan.
"Right now India doesn't have any umpire in the ICC panel. India has the infrastructure but it is not being used properly to train umpires and match referees," Sawant said.
BCCI's umpires sub-committee: Ravi Sawant (chairman), Sunil Dev (North), Sudhakar Rao (South), Rajesh Verma (East), Devendra Solanki (West), Bhagvandas Sutar (Central), S Venkatraghavan (director), A V Jayaprakash (retd. Test umpire), Anurag Thakur (jt. secretary).
Image: AV Jayaprakash
Photograph: Tom Shaw/ALLSPORT
