The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has come up with an introduction of an A+ category of BCCI umpires, ICC Elite Panel member Nitin Menon is among the 10 officials grouped in the category.
Anil Chaudhary, Madangopal Jayaraman, Virender Kumar Sharma and K N Ananthapadmabhanan are also included in the A+ category, they all are international umpires.
Moreover, Rohan Pandit, Nikhil Patwardhan, Sadashiv Iyer, Ulhas Gandhe and Navdeep Singh Sidhu are also a part of the A+ category.
The list was presented at the Apex Council meeting on Thursday following the work done by former international umpires K Hariharan, Sudhir Asnani and Amiesh Saheba and members of the BCCI umpires sub-committee.
“It is not grading. There are groups with A+ being the new category. A+ and A, one can say from the cream of Indian umpires. Umpires in B and C category are also good. When it comes to assigning duties across domestic events starting at the top with Ranji Trophy, preference will be given group wise. The grouping has been done after reviewing the performances of the 2021-22 season,” said a BCCI official.
“The focus should be on improving standard of umpiring at all levels,” the official added.
Umpires in the A+ and A category are paid Rs. 40,000 per day for a first-class game while Rs. 30,000 per day in the B and C category.
C Shamshuddin and twenty officials more have formed the A group, 60 are in Group B, 46 in Group C and 11 in Group D which falls in the 60-65 age bracket.
