How many times have you, along with millions of other cricket fans, held your collective breaths when a Sachin Tendulkar on song barely manages to reach the crease after a hasty run and a nippy fielder has managed a direct throw at the wickets from the boundary? Don’t your eyes then automatically shift to a certain gentleman in a white hat and coat, and doesn’t your heart send a prayer up there, hoping for a miracle, dreading the fact that he might just raise that dreaded finger and send Tendulkar back to the pavilion?

They wield enormous powers, these umpires. Their decisions on the cricket field are sacrosanct and no one dares question them. So coveted is the job that it led to Anil Kumar Chaudhary quitting his engineering midway. “I had completed my engineering diploma and was preparing for a Bachelor’s in engineering when I was given an opportunity to do umpiring by (Late) Ram Babu Gupta at a state-level Test match. I was then just 22 and I enjoyed the respect an umpire commanded. That was the beginning of my career in umpiring,” says Chaudhary.

It is necessary for an umpire to have been a cricketer, he says. “You must have played at the club or state level, otherwise you can’t be familiar with the game,” adds Chaudhary.

Piloo Reporter, who umpired in the 1992 World Cup, agrees. “You can’t become a national level umpire straightaway. I also got my first break in umpiring for a Kanga League competition when I was 23 and it took me another six years to reach the Ranji levels,” he says.

Though two decades have passed since Reporter umpired his last professional match, he still yearns to take “sporting” decisions and participates in low-profile corporate matches. “Though I was a player, I was more passionate about being an umpire,” adds Reporter. And he has been unable to give it up even at the age of 72.

To become an umpire, you have to qualify theory exams conducted by state sports bodies like the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA). Once you qualify, you become eligible for the exams conducted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), and your state cricket association will endorse your candidature.

Please note, gathering information on the exam dates etc becomes easier if you are a cricket player at the state or club level. One should also ideally keep in touch with the state cricket associations’ convening committee to stay updated on exams.

The profession is getting lucrative. “Initially I used to work merely to earn something extra, but now I make Rs 10,000 for each day of work. And thanks to the scarcity of umpires in Delhi, I normally get 200 days of work a year,” adds Chaudhary.

On the qualifications, Rajiv Gupta, another umpire on the DDCA panel says, “There are no prerequisites in terms of educational qualifications, which is why those who can’t even read the rule book of cricket claim to be umpires of local cricket matches. One should be able to read as well as understand the rules of cricket — written in English.”

An umpire is the only person on the field who enjoys the game from up close and is in control of the progression of the game. With power, however, come responsibilities. “If you can’t go with the flow of the game in the first half-hour, then you can end up taking a wrong decision,” says Gupta. But what happens in case of a wrong verdict? Normally no serious punitive action is taken against an umpire. “But in an extreme case of dereliction of duty, he can be barred for two three matches,” adds Gupta.

Chaudhary calls umpires match managers. “There are only 42 laws of cricket, but a cricket match might throw up thousands of problems which are not written anywhere. You are entrusted with the responsibility of managing 22 players,” he says. One tends to develop managerial skills through on-field experience.

How many times have you, along with millions of other cricket fans, held your collective breaths when a Sachin Tendulkar on song barely manages to reach the crease after a hasty run and a nippy fielder has managed a direct throw at the wickets from the boundary? Don’t your eyes then automatically shift to a certain gentleman in a white hat and coat, and doesn’t your heart send a prayer up there, hoping for a miracle, dreading the fact that he might just raise that dreaded finge