Tony Becca, Senior Sport Editor
IT IS not often that the International Cricket Council, the governing body for cricket, keeps a promise but, thank God, they have kept one this time around.
Last year, the ICC promised that by April this year there would be two neutral umpires in every Test match, and in announcing its elite panel of eight umpires a few days ago, it also announced that there will be two neutral umpires in the Test matches between the West Indies and India starting on April 11 and in every Test match after that.
To all those visiting cricketers who have always complained of biased hometown umpiring, and for all those fans of visiting teams who have always talked about biased hometowm umpiring, that should be good news.
In fact, but for those cricketers, batsmen especially, who will no longer be able to blame umpires for their failure when they return home, it should be good news for everyone involved with the game.
Remembering that for some time now there has been one home umpire and one visiting umpire in every Test match, and that many decisions favouring the home team, some crucial ones at that, have been made by the visiting umpire, two neutral umpires in every Test match should be good not because it will eliminate mistakes, but because it will get rid of the fear of being cheated by hometown umpires and because it will remove the charge of hometown bias.
It is a pity that cricket has taken so long to do what other sports, including football, have been doing for years. It is, however, better late than never, and the ICC should take a bow.
Neutral umpires will not guarantee that mistakes will not be made. What it will guarantee is that there will be no hometown bias, real or imagined, or any talk of hometown bias.
In time, however, fewer and fewer mistakes will be made if the ICC, which should also be congratulated for the method used in selecting the eight umpires, for putting them on contract, and for recognising the fact that they need training in certain areas, keeps another promise.
The ICC has promised that there will be seminars to deal with such things as maintaining discipline, the psychology of decision-making, and the physical fitness and mental alertness of umpires.
