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Cricket Australia (CA) has made a significant advancement for its umpires by implementing a new ranking system. The governing body will now evaluate and rank the match officials within a newly expanded panel. The top-performing umpires will be assigned more matches as a reward for their merit.
An 18-member Umpires Panel has been established under a recently signed three-year Memorandum of Understanding between Cricket Australia and the Umpire Leadership Group. Umpires in this panel will be assessed based on their previous performances and their potential for future success.
In addition, umpires will receive extra bonuses for officiating in the finals of domestic, KFC BBL, and Weber WBBL competitions. This system aims to ensure that the highest-ranked umpires are given more opportunities to officiate, acknowledging their achievements. Previously, umpires had their workloads managed across Australia’s domestic competitions.
Shawn Craig, one of the four umpires announced on the CA International Panel and a member of the Umpire Leadership Group, expressed that the new system provides greater flexibility and enables umpires to contribute more effectively to the sport.
“It allows flexibility in changing appointments, and modifying appointments so that the most appropriate umpires get the most appropriate games. Let’s say umpiring appointments have been made for the final home-and-away rounds of the Sheffield Shield competition, but then it turns out you have your best-ranked umpires down to officiate in a game that’s effectively a dead rubber.
“Meanwhile, a corresponding top-of-the-table match might have umpires already appointed who perhaps might not be the highest ranked. This changes all that and allows the best umpires to be umpiring more and servicing cricket accordingly. We have moved to a ranking model that is based on performance which will reward performance. It doesn’t alter the way we’re assessed for performance, it just provides everyone with more flexibility and the ability for people to be more nimble.”
The newly introduced Contracted Umpire Panel will take the place of the former 12-person National Umpire Panel and the six-member Supplementary Umpire Panel. Notably, the Panel features female umpires Claire Polosak and Eloise Sheridan, who made history by officiating at Sheffield Shield level.
Damien Mealey, Chairman of the Cricket Australia Umpire Selection Panel, remarked that this change will foster and recognize umpiring talent within Australian cricket.
“The quality of the panel is an endorsement of the outstanding umpiring talent within Australian cricket. The selection panel is encouraged by the emergence of new umpires developing across all States and Territories, which has resulted in several first-class debuts placing match officiating in a very strong position moving forward.
“I would especially like to congratulate Daryl Brigham and Roberto Howard on their elevation to the Umpire Panel, which has been well earned after strong performances over several seasons.”
Cricket Australia announces its Contracted Umpires Panel.
Cricket Australia Contracted Umpires Panel for 2024-25
Gerard Abood, Daryl Brigham, Shawn Craig, Drew Crozier, Greg Davidson, Stephen Dionysius, Phil Gillespie, Mike Graham-Smith, Roberto Howard, Donovan Koch, Simon Lightbody, Sam Nogajski, Sharad Patel, Troy Penman, Claire Polosak, Eloise Sheridan, David Taylor, Ben Treloar
For the 2023-24 season, the umpires nominated by Cricket Australia to the ICC International Panel for Men’s International matches are:
– Shawn Craig
– Phil Gillespie
– Donovan Koch
– Sam Nogajski
