Mumbai: Global Cricket School hosted a meet and greet session with the former Australian cricket umpire Simon Taufel, who was a member of the ICC Elite umpire panel and a five year consecutive ICC Umpire of the Year award winner.
Taufel was in Mumbai on Thursday for interaction with the umpires and to share his experiences.
Apart from talking about the technical details, Simon spoke about the importance of match management skills and said, "As umpires, we are often required to diffuse the situation, we have to project the reaction that we want from the Player/Captain. Staying calm and putting your point across clearly helps most of the times".
India has not produced many ICC Elite Panel umpires and when quizzed about it he said, " "India has a lot of potential but there is a need to develop a grassroots development program.
India needs to appoint umpires, manager and coaches and think about long term plans as it takes at least 10 years to become an elite panel umpire".
Simon also spoke about the importance of fitness by advising the umpires to look after their health.
