BSJA holds seminar on umpiring concerns

Umpiring has become a major concern in local cricket and Bangladesh Sports Journalists Association held a seminar titled “Biased umpiring in Dhaka cricket: reality and solution” Wednesday. 

In the beginning of the seminar at the Bangladesh Olympic Association auditorium of the capital city, Ariful Islam Roney read the observations of BSJA where it is stated that Dhaka cricket was once the pulse of Bangladesh cricket but is in morbid state now. 

Some suicidal steps and politically interested moves have put the first, second and third division leagues of Dhaka in dire straits. 

A few other speakers of the seminar leveled allegations against the clubs of Dhaka and some directors of the cricket board. 

They said the mindset of club officials of winning by any means, BCB’s councillorship, inept umpires and matches not being broadcast live on television are the reasons behind poor umpiring.  

The chairman of the Cricket Committee of Dhaka Metropolis, Kazi Inam Ahmed said, “Constructive criticism is very important as many things are revealed with those. We will try to implement the proposals raised here through discussing them in the board meeting. We tried to allot umpires after discussing with the umpires’ committee but we did not get their response. I hope, in future CCDM may work with the alignment of president and secretary of the umpires’ committee. We are trying to live stream the premier league matches with four cameras. We have already taken steps regarding this.” 

Before the speech of the CCDM chairman, Kalabagan Krira Chakra’s cricket secretary Riyaz Ahmed Babu said, due to “bureaucratic complicacy” the written comments of players and managers after the match do not reach up to the CCDM. 

He said some umpires are doing “paid officiating”.  

However, senior journalist Sayeeduzzaman did not blame the umpires solely. 

He raised allegation against club officials as well. 

He said, “Our umpires are not that bad as it was seen in the just concluded T20 tournament.” 

He said there was no allegation against them in the tournament because they could do their job with full freedom.

Eminent sports organiser, cricket coach and former general secretary of BSJA, Jalal Ahmed Chowdhury asked about BCB’s councillorship for clubs outside Dhaka. 

Former national captain and BCB director Gazi Ashraf Hossain Lipu said, “When we used to play, umpires used to make human errors but it is often intentional now. Umpires also did mistakes in our era but at the moment it is important to determine the level of such kind of mistakes.” 

After hearing all the complaints, the CCDM chairman said, “CCDM is like a museum, and I am only a curator there. A curator cannot make huge changes alone. But we are trying. We have finished the Dhaka Premier League T20 without any controversy. We ensured players’ payment and also increased wages of the players.”

In the concluding part of the seminar, BSJA proposed some possible solutions to increase the quality of umpiring in the Dhaka League.