Laxman Sivaramakrishnan questions ICC's policy of rotating umpires

Cricket commentator Laxman Sivaramakrishnan questioned the ICC's policy of rotating the umpires with the former Indian leg-spinner mentioning that two English umpires regularly officiated the Indian cricket team's matches during the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup.

In a live chat with Indranil Basu on Sportskeeda Cricket's Facebook page, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan opined that the organizers should lay down a proper rotation policy for the umpires.

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Laxman Sivaramakrishnan discussed the nomination of umpires in detail. He felt that the ICC should form two groups of match officials for the premier tournaments and use a proper rotation policy for the same.

"For India's matches, there were two English umpires in at least four games. You talk about neutral umpiring. There were at least four matches where there were two English umpires, at least one Englishman umpiring the particular game," he stated.

Laxman Sivaramakrishnan also mentioned that the Indian team management had expressed their thoughts on that particular aspect.

"So, this is one matter that team management has expressed their views. Now you are going to say because of the coronavirus, we are going to see local umpires umpire and how they do their job and if they are going to continue with that, but the rotation of umpires is very very important," Sivaramakrishnan continued.

He quipped that the ICC should not allow the umpires to officiate games featuring their country. When asked if a conspiracy was going around regarding the same, Sivaramakrishnan felt that one couldn't ascertain without any evidence, saying that it might have just been a coincidence. However, he stressed the fact that the English umpires regularly featured in India's matches.