BCCI introduces A+ category for umpires

ICC Elite Panel member Nitin Menon is among 10 officials grouped in the newly introduced A+ category of BCCI umpires.

The others in the A+ category include four international umpires — Anil Chaudhary, Madangopal Jayaraman, Virender Kumar Sharma and K N Ananthapadmabhanan. Rohan Pandit, Nikhil Patwardhan, Sadashiv Iyer, Ulhas Gandhe and Navdeep Singh Sidhu are also part of the A+ category.

Rohan Pandit, Nikhil Patwardhan, Sadashiv Iyer, Ulhas Gandhe and Navdeep Singh Sidhu are also part of the A+ category. Twenty umpires including C Shamshuddin form 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.

The complete list was tabled 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 BCCI umpires’ sub-committee.

Umpires in A+ and A category are paid Rs 40,000 a day for a first-class game while Rs 30,000 a day are paid in the B and C category. Though the list was presented as ’gradation of umpires’, a BCCI official clarified.