Umpire Sundaram Ravi has been retained in the International Cricket Council's Elite Panel of umpires. He is the second Indian umpire after S Venkataraghavan to be selected to this panel.
Since making his debut as an official in a T20I between India and England in October 2011, Ravi has officiated in 11 Test matches, 26 ODIs and 18 T20Is. Last year Ravi officiated in the first day-night Test along with England's Richard Illingworth between Australia and New Zealand at the Adelaide Oval.
In another positive development, umpire C Shamshuddin has been elevated to ICC’s ODI Emerging Panel for umpires. The 46-year-old has officiated in seven ODIs and 10 T20I matches.
The elevation of Shamshuddin and retention of Ravi’s to Elite Panel is a testament to BCCI’s focused efforts towards raising the standard of umpiring in India and creating a bigger pool of match officials. The exposure as a field umpire in IPL has helped the Indian Umpires.
The BCCI regularly conducts workshops for umpires and these workshops are to train the umpires in dealing with suspect action, use of technology as a TV umpire, laws of cricket and playing conditions. The BCCI National Academy of Umpires in Nagpur is fully equipped for training courses. Since last year, we started English speaking courses for our umpires to improve their communication skills and the course is being conducted by experts from British Council. Simon Taufel has been used as the resource for the Workshops.
