ICC to reintroduce neutral umpires

ICC chairman Greg Barclay was on a two-day tour to Bangladesh and attended a press conference at Mirpur after the first day's play between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka where he talked about cricket governing body's plans on neutral umpires.

The ICC had decided in a recent board meeting that one on-field umpire, the match referee and the third umpire will be neutral during the 2022-23 period. Home umpires had been used in Test series during the pandemic times, especially to deal with travel restrictions and help meet health protocols of various countries.

It was Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan, who tweeted during Bangladesh's first Test against South Africa at Durban in April that ICC should bring back neutral umpiring after the team felt hard done by a few decisions from the umpires during that game.

The ICC chairman said that there had been benefits to using home umpires as they improved the overall quality of umpiring.

"There were some benefits of covid for cricket. One of them was the chance to use umpires at home. It has given home umpires some exposure to international cricket that they otherwise wouldn't have had. I think that's good. It spread the base a little bit wider. I think if you look at the stats, they're there or there about in terms of their performances compared with the neutral umpires," he said.

Barclay said the ICC's plans are now to reintroduce neutral umpires.

"We are at the other side of Covid so we are reintroducing neutral umpire arrangement. It was decided in the last board meeting. You will see neutral umpires back up and running again," he said.

"I can't give a date due to operational issue but yeah pretty soon," he answered to the question on when it was to be reintroduced.

The ICC chairman also said that the ICC were keen on making Test cricket relevant and the World Test Championship had been a success in that regard.

"I think now that we are in the second cycle of the World Test Championship, we would look back to say the first cycle was successful. We intended to give Test cricket more relevance and context, to drive interest. I think if you look at those measures, it was successful.

"Every country has a chance to get to the Test final. If you look at New Zealand, they certainly did it against the odds. There was a bit of luck along the way. You never know what's going to happen. That context makes it relevant for all the participants. It also ensures member countries fulfil all commitments to other member countries, to play Test cricket. I know that T20, profile-wise, perhaps overshadow it but Test cricket is a very important part of the cricketing landscape. Test Championship is very much part of the strategy to ensure that we maintain context and relevance of Test cricket," he concluded.