Former international umpire Asad Rauf believes that the Indian Premier League (IPL) owes its high officiating standards to Pakistani umpires.
Rauf, who was once a member of ICC elite panel but is now banned from officiating by the Board of Control for Cricket in India after being found guilty in a fixing probe, made those remarks in an interview with Cricket Pakistan.
While urging the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to improve the Pakistan Super League’s level of umpiring, he said that the IPL’s officiating standards were also quite poor but folks such as himself from this side of the border helped fix that.
“The standard of umpiring in PSL needs to be improved as well because poor umpiring can easily ruin a tournament,” he told the publication.
“For instance, if you remember the first few seasons of IPL, fans and even team captains complained about umpiring which is why steps were taken to improve it. Even umpires were called from Pakistan, despite strained relations between the two countries, because of our correct decisions on the field.”
“Pakistani umpires were instrumental to IPL's success,” he claimed.
Rauf gave the interview alongside Nadeem Ghauri – who was also banned in 2013 over charges that he accepted money in return of favourable decisions.
It is pertinent to mention here that the ongoing IPL 2020, despite the aforesaid ‘improved’ standards, saw a howler in the opening week and drew ridicule.
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