BCCI not satisfied with Simon Taufel’s commitment
Jul 17, 2016 at 12:33 PM
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is reportedly unhappy with former International umpire Simon Taufel. The Australian umpire was hired by the BCCI in 2013 to mentor the domestic umpires. Taufel, who was named ICC’s umpire of the year in 2004 and 2008, was given a hefty annual fee of $50,000 for his role. However, his commitment has now been questioned by the BCCI. According to reports in the Times of India, the board is not willing to renew Taufel’s contract after September.
“The board wants to cut out unnecessary expenditure. Much was expected of Taufel but his work over the past couple of years hasn’t been satisfactory . The board is willing to look at someone else,” a top BCCI official told TOI
“He spent very little time in India. If you add up the days he spends before the Ranji Trophy and the IPL, he interacts with Indian umpires at the most for a fortnight a year. It is not worth paying him so much,” the source added.
“He was initially given a two-year contract. But his performance was reviewed last year and it was decided he should be given only one-year contracts. There’s no denying that there has been a healthy change since he took over but our umpires too have evolved a lot,” noted another BCCI official. “If there is a change in ICC regulation or something like that, the board can always hire the services of a professional.”
When Taufel took the role of mentor, India did not have a single umpire in the ICC’s elite panel for many years. The last umpire to represent India in the elite panel was S Venkataraghavan, who retired way back in 2004. Last year, S Ravi, C Shamshuddin, and Anil Chaudhary were included in the list of on-field umpires in the ICC’s international panel.