Taufel to trim BCB officiating panels following assessment drive

Bangla Press Desk:   Former ICC Elite Panel umpire Simon Taufel has signalled a major reshaping of Bangladesh’s match officiating structure. He stated that the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) aims to reduce the size of its contracted umpire and match referee panels to enhance quality, consistency, and accountability.

Taufel, 54, who joined the BCB last September on a two-year contract as an umpires’ education consultant, recently concluded his involvement in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) alongside a two-day workshop for match referees at the BCB.

After observing officials in a high-pressure tournament environment and working closely with them in training sessions, Taufel made it clear that the next phase will involve more rigorous evaluation and sharper selection.

“It’s all about improvement. There’s no finish line to what we’re doing here,” Taufel said. 

“But of course we want to make the team stronger. So what we’ll be doing going forward is looking at reducing the size of panels where we can to improve the quality and consistency of performance. The players expect that and we want that too.”

Taufel served as a match referee during the BPL, using the tournament as a "live laboratory" to assess current officiating standards. He was joined by Dennis Burns, an experienced umpire coach from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), continuing a professional partnership that dates back to their time at the International Cricket Council (ICC) and Cricket Australia.

“The last three weeks have been another step forward for Bangladesh cricket’s investment in match officiating,” Taufel said. 

“The BPL tournament showed that there were seven teams in the tournament. There were umpires, referees and coaches involved in the BPL to try and improve the standard of cricket in Bangladesh. It’s been an absolute pleasure to be part of the BPL and to be a match referee in that competition. But also to bring across another umpire coach in Dennis Burns from the ECB… and together as a unit, everyone’s involved here because umpiring is everyone’s business.”

While Taufel was encouraged by the "very high" standard of umpiring during the BPL, he emphasised that an elite system cannot afford complacency.

“The umpires need more quality information if they’re going to improve, but also to reinforce what they’re doing well. The standard of umpiring in BPL, I thought, was very high. But being a restless person as I am, there’s always room for improvement,” he noted.

“Today, the match referees have gone through a course around how they get better. So everybody in our system is accountable, everybody needs to improve and we’re always looking to raise the standard. So no different to the playing teams,” he added. 

“One of the great things about the BPL final and the play-offs was that nobody was talking about the umpiring. We want the same thing about Bangladesh domestic cricket as well.”

A primary objective for Taufel is to establish a transparent, data-driven pathway for Bangladeshi umpires, where performance is measured, ranked, and rewarded.

“We’ve gone through man and match management, player issues. We’ve gone through decision-making and also how to collect better statistics. Because the Bangladesh Cricket Board wants to be in a position to rank their umpires and to ensure that the right umpires are going forward and reaching the highest level of our sport,” he said.

The ultimate ambition is to produce a greater number of international-standard officials from Bangladesh.

“We do want to produce more international standard umpires here in Bangladesh. We’re all part of that. The match referees are an integral part of that. So it’s been really rewarding, exciting, informative… sometimes interesting, but we’ve learned a lot more about what we’re doing and the way we’re doing it,” he concluded.

BP/SP