Mumbai 14th November: Global Cricket School hosted a meet and greet session with the former Australian cricket umpire Simon Taufel, who was a member of the ICC Elite umpire panel and a five year consecutive ICC Umpire of the Year award winner. Taufel was in Mumbai on Thursday for interaction with the umpires and to share his experiences.
Apart from talking about the technical details, Simon spoke about the importance of match management skills and said, "As umpires, we are often required to diffuse the situation, we have to project the reaction that we want from the Player/Captain. Staying calm and putting your point across clearly helps most of the times".
Simon also spoke about the importance of fitness by advising the umpires to look after their health and well being for better performance. "An Umpire has to bring fitness into his life as it will not only help you to become a better umpire but it will also help you in all areas of life. I was lucky to tap into the resources of Cricket Australia and find a trainer who helped me work out the right training and nutrition for an umpire".
When asked about how does it feel when a decision goes wrong he added, "When we walk out there we go with the intention of getting everything right but we also have a fear of getting it wrong in the first few overs. If a player gets out on a wrong shot he can vent his frustration in the dressing room but we have nowhere to hide and hence we have to be mentally strong and focus on the next ball. You have to take every ball as it comes, you cannot prepare yourself for the right decision it comes with instinct and experience".
India has not produced many ICC Elite Panel umpires and when quizzed about it he said, " "India has a lot of potential but there is a need to develop a grassroots development program. India needs to appoint umpires, manager and coaches and think about long term plans as it takes at least 10 years to become an elite panel umpire".
When asked his views about introducing the No-Ball umpire rule in the IPL, the five-time ICC Umpire of the Year felt an umpire’s decision-making need not improve if the task of looking for no-balls was taken away from him.
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