In a recent development, a newly expanded panel of national umpires in Australia are ranked and compensated based on merit. With this, the top-ranked umpires will be officiating in more matches. This development, made by Cricket Australia (CA), finalizes a new three-year Memorandum of Understanding with the Umpire Leadership Group, designating an 18-member Cricket Australia Contracted Umpires Panel.
Australia‘s contracted players are rewarded based on their rankings. Notably, the umpires are also rated on their previous performances and likely potential. In addition, the umpires will receive bonuses for officiating in finals across domestic competitions, including the Big Bash League and Women Big Bash League. Earlier, the new appointments of umpires were aimed at distributing workloads. According to the new system, higher-ranked umpires are expected to take on more matches.
Shawn Craig, one of the four new members of the CA International Panel and the Umpire Leadership Group, has welcomed the new approach of CA as he feels this strategy will offer more adaptability. He also mentioned the old system, where appointments were scheduled weeks in advance.
“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,” Craig told cricket.com.au.
“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,” he added.
The new umpires panel takes over from the former 12-member National Umpire Panel and the six-member Supplementary Umpire Panel. Earlier this year, longest-serving umpires Bruce Oxenford and Paul Wilson announced their retirements. Notably, this paved the way for Victoria’s Daryl Brigham and New South Welshman Roberto Howard to receive their first national contracts for 2024-25. Additionally, female umpires Claire Polosak and Eloise Sheridan were also included in the panel.
2024-25 CA Contracted Umpires Panel
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
2023-24 CA International Panel Umpires (nominated to ICC as umpires for Men’s International matches)
Shawn Craig, Phil Gillespie, Donovan Koch, Sam Nogajski
