Delhi: The cricket news coming from Australia is not only about the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, it is also about the bad condition of an umpire during a cricket match. What actually happened was that a Western Australian cricket umpire was hit straight in the face by a batsman's full-blooded straight drive shot during a match. Tony de Nobrega Charles is a senior umpire and was officiating in a West Australia Suburban Turf Cricket Association (WASTCA) match between North Perth and Wembley Districts at Wyard Reserve. Now the ball actually hit Tony on the side of his face otherwise it would have been worse.
Stayed in the hospital for two nights. Thankfully, the investigation revealed that no bones were broken and he has escaped any surgery for the time being, but this incident has put cricket umpires all over the world in trouble. However, Tony is not the first umpire to get seriously injured during umpiring duty. An 80-year-old umpire named John Williams died in Wales in 2019 after being hit by a ball. Williams remained in a coma and died a few weeks later. Earlier in 2014, Israeli umpire Hilal Oscar was hit in the head by a ball that hit the stumps, resulting in his death.
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That is why this discussion has been going on for the last many years that ICC and MCC, who make the cricket law, constantly think about the safety of the batsman but in the same way do not think anything about the umpire who is in danger of trouble. That is why whatever progress has been made so far in this matter is the result of the umpires' own thinking and initiative. Australian umpire Gerard Abood wears a helmet while officiating in Big Bash League matches. Similarly, now retired international umpire Bruce Oxenford wore a plastic four arm shield to protect his arm. Oxenford even wore this shield during the match between Gujarat Lions-Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL.
Umpire Bruce Oxenford was inspired by the news of his fellow umpire John Ward being hit on the head and seriously injured while on duty in India. All great umpires believe that in today's cricket they are on the firing line and often the ball comes towards them very fast. So what's the problem with wearing a helmet for your safety? The answer to this is that many umpires think that by wearing it, they will not be able to turn their face freely to see the ball and will also have difficulty in hearing the sound. Oxenford therefore wore a shield that would protect both the face and the arm by placing the arm in front of the face.
A few years ago, in one of his articles, Gautam Gambhir had praised the umpire who wore an abdominal guard while on duty in a cricket match. Remember the Mumbai Test of December 2016. Umpire Paul Reiffel had a narrow escape after being hit by the ball. What happened was that when Bhuvneshwar Kumar threw to Cheteshwar Pujara, the ball hit the back of Reiffel's neck. It was lucky that there was not much life in the throw otherwise it could have proved fatal.
Therefore, there is a need to make a law for umpires to wear helmets on the field and especially to make proper guards and helmets for them. Today cricket has become very fast and especially after the arrival of T20, the shots have become very fast and dangerous. Often, the umpire will save himself by ducking quickly and moving out of the line of shot, but even the slightest delay can prove costly. In this matter, Mumbai Cricket Association has to be praised which has declared helmets mandatory for umpires on the grounds. In fact, many matches are played simultaneously on the grounds there, so it is not necessary that the umpire is in danger from the ball of the same match in which he is officiating. No one knows when the ball will come straight from another match. They also woke up when in January this year, cricketer Jayesh Savla was hit by a ball from a match being played on the ground of Dadar Union Cricket Club at Dadkar ground in Matunga and he died due to the ball.
Australia's John Ward became the first umpire to wear a helmet in an international match during the fourth ODI between Australia and India in Canberra. More such initiatives are needed.
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