Umpires are just as important as cricketers and the game of cricket in T&T is facing a crisis as far as the these officials are concerned. At the zonal level of the T&T Cricket Board (TTCB), umpires are now hard to find, as they have been lured away by the lucrative minor leagues. Many times zonal matches are played with no appointed umpires-because they fail to show-and each team then has to volunteer a player to do one end of the umpiring. This of course leads to problems as, try how hard to be honest, a player will always be labelled a cheat once a decision does not go in the other team's favour.
Over the past week, I have done some investigation into the umpiring problems and one of the revelations is that umpires are not interested in doing the zonal cricket matches as they are better paid by the organisers of the minor leagues. Also they are given their money at the end of the match and this is attractive to them. When they umpire for the zonal councils, they have to send in a claim and they are normally paid at the end of the season.
Treasurer of the south zonal council Rudolph Ali says the crisis has been affecting the South Zone very badly and hence the zone is willing to pay officials at the end of the match, if they wish. Another factor is the length of the matches. Most of the minor leagues are played in the T20 (Twenty20) format and the umpires are well paid for three hours or less work. In the zonal set up, they have to go out there for close to six hours and then the payment is not as good as the minor league tournament. Another problem facing the game locally is the complaints from many players about the standard of umpiring in this country. Many players, who participate in the top flight of local cricket-the Premiership-have been complaining about the standard of umpiring. One player stated that he made an appeal for leg before wicket (lbw) against a batsman in the Premiership and the umpire turned down the appeal and signalled four leg byes (which implies the umpire thought the ball hit the pad without touching the bat before it went to the boundary). He added that while walking back to his bowling mark he asked the umpire why he didn't get the decision going his way. He said the umpire replied the batsman had gotten a touch and that is why.
Yet he signalled four leg byes (if the umpire believed the batsman had touched the ball with his bat he should have signalled four runs instead of four leg byes). A top cricket official also remarked to me that he has had a number of conversations with umpires, who claimed they are being called with bribes during the week prior to matches to support certain teams. He also alleged that "some umpires are now being bought out by teams with money, as they just want to win at all costs." The TTCB needs to get involved with helping to revive the art of umpiring. The umpires body, although falling under the umbrella of the TTCB, is a seperate organisation but this should not debar the board from stepping in. The current president of the TTCB, Azim Bassarath, was a former umpire and his son Zahid Bassarath is one of the better ones coming through with a very bright future. Umpiring is close to Bassarath so he should do what is in his power to assist the umpires in this country. Hopefully, we can get this very important component of the game sorted out quickly and the local game can continue its upward climb.