Nitin Menon consistently kept Indian Umpires Flag high throughout India-England Test Series.
Indian Umpire Nitin Menon wouldn’t have dreamt of standing in the test match involving India. However, due to the restrictions posed by the covid-19 pandemic, he got a chance to operate in the India-England test series. For him, this would be a blessing in disguise. Menon is the only third Indian in the ICC Elite Panel of Umpires after S Venkataraghavan and S Ravi.
The youngest Umpire in the panel, Nitin Menon not only did the job with perfection but also got praises from the Indian former cricketer and commentators.
Sanjay Manjrekar lauded Nitin Menon for his brilliant series, he said “Keeping analyst course aside, Menon is having a super series as an umpire. It is good news for Indian cricket. Indian have produced world-class cricketers and now its the turn for umpires.”
Nitin Menon was also praised by Sunil Gavaskar and Aakash Chopra. While the Indian umpire understands he needs to do his job with full consistency ahead also.
“I don’t do umpiring to prove my point. I love this game and that is why is do this. With Umpiring, I got to see the world’s best players in front of me. It is always a joy to watch them. Umpiring is more or less similar to batting or bowling. You need to stay focused and keep your eye on one ball at a time. Even though you had a good game last night, you can face criticism in the next match for one odd decision. I have got a chance to officiate in the Indian tests and I want to focus on that with full consistency,” Nitin Menon told Times of India.
Menon further credited his whole team for the good series. He said, “Not me, my whole team have done great. Anil Chaudhary, Virendra Sharma and Shamsuddin all have umpired well. If they wouldn’t have performed well, eventually the pressure would come on me and in that case, I might end up with wrong decisions under pressure. So credit goes to all the umpires.”
“There was a general perception around the world that Indian umpires are not good. I hope this series break all those pre-defined thoughts. For me, the views of the ICC selection panel are more important,” said Nitin Menon.
“Our job is to make the right decision on the field no matter whichever team is playing in front of you. There is always a view that Indian umpires will favour the Indian team or home umpires will give decisions in their player’s favour. However, it is not, we cannot keep people out of these thoughts and they are open to express their point. It feels nice when legends like Sunil Gavaskar Sir, experts like Sanjay Manjrekar and Aakash Chopra praise you for you performance.”
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