Dubai: Khurram Khan, UAE’s star allrounder and vice-captain of the national team, wants umpires officiating in domestic cricket to be trained to ‘spot’ bowlers with suspect actions.
Khurram also called for umpires to be given the right to pull up bowlers with suspect action and also report such incidents so that any bowler with a wrong action stands the chance to get help to remodel his action rather than being reported for chucking at a later stage.
The veteran’s call for empowering umpires came after two talented bowlers — medium pacer Mohammad Shahzad and off-spinner Salman Farooq — missed the cut for the World Cup team after they were reported for suspect actions.
Speaking to Gulf News, Khurram said: “Shahzad should have been in the team for World Cup but after he was called for suspect action, he broke his thumb and could not get his action corrected in time. Though there is nothing wrong with his action but still he needs to get it checked and if our umpires had reported before, he would not have missed the selection. Nasir Aziz, whose action was reported early, corrected himself. There might be many bowlers in domestic cricket unaware that their action is suspect and need correction.”
“Now domestic umpires are not calling for chucking because they have not been trained. Umpires from Malaysia, Nepal and Singapore are getting trained and doing international matches. I feel our umpires must be sent abroad to do matches or given chances to officiate in first class matches which can help them to go on to become international umpires. If they get good exposure, then they can apply it in domestic matches,” added 43-year-old Khurram, who pointed out that umpires from many associate countries are officiating in international matches.
“Umpires from Nepal, Singapore and Malaysia are international umpires and they are associate countries like us. In fact, a Singapore umpire officiated in our international match. Our umpires are good and all they need is exposure and a little bit of backing from the board as well so that they can go and do well at this level. If they gain exposure, it will only help UAE cricket,” said Khurram,
“Right now, I feel umpires have no powers. I have never seen anybody calling anyone for chucking here. Recently, I asked an umpire regarding the rules on calling for chucking and he told me that the board has stopped umpires from making judgement on action because it can pose problem to the cricketer’s job.
“I work for the Emirates airlines and play cricket too. If there is something wrong with a bowler’s action, they need to fix it rather than allow it to continue. If it is not checked, the guys with correct action may be tempted to try other means,” added Khurram.
