Indian Umpire Nitin Menon Enters ICC Elite Panel

29 Jun, 2020 16:44 IST|Sakshi Post

India's Nitin Menon on Monday became the youngest ever to be included in the International Cricket Council's Elite Panel of Umpires for the upcoming 2020-21 season. The 36-year-old has officiated in three Tests, 24 ODIs and 16 T20Is.

He replaces England's Nigel Llong.

He is only the third from India to make it to the prestigious group after former captain Srinivas Venkatraghavan and Sundaram Ravi, who was axed last year.

"To be officiating regularly along with the leading umpires and referees of the world is something that I always dreamt of and the feeling has yet to sink in," Menon was quoted as saying in an ICC statement.

A selection panel comprising ICC General Manager (Cricket) Geoff Allardice (Chairman), former player and commentator Sanjay Manjrekar, and match referees Ranjan Madugalle and David Boon, picked Menon, who was earlier part of the Emirates ICC International Panel of Umpires, as reported by a news agency.

While standard of Indian umpiring has copped a lot of criticism globally, performance of Menon over the past few years has been a silver lining.

Menon quit playing competitive cricket at 22 and by 23, he had become a senior umpire, officiating in BCCI accredited matches.

The son of a former international umpire, Menon started at a young age and has now completed 13 years in this profession. "My priority was to play for the country rather than umpiring. But I quit playing at 22 and I became a senior umpire at the age of 23. It wasn't worth trying to play and umpire so I decided to focus on umpiring alone," he was quoted saying by a news agency.

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