Ashes Debut: Nitin Menon, an Indian umpire, reminisced on his previous experience as a match official before of his debut in the highly anticipated Ashes series. The umpire is set to call the final three Ashes Tests, which begin on Thursday, July 6.
Notably, Nitin was enrolled into the ICC Elite Panel in June 2020 but did not play in the bulk of India’s home games owing to COVID-19 travel limitations imposed on foreigners. He did, however, get to referee a couple of T20 World Cup matches in the UAE and Australia, as well as be a member of the umpiring staff for England’s home series against South Africa.
Nitin, who has significant cricket experience, reminisced on his career and described how he has thrived as an umpire ahead of his Ashes debut. He also stated that umpiring at home has helped him deal with the strain put on him by the players.
“It’s been an incredible experience working in the Indian subcontinent for the first two years, officiating Test matches and then T20 World Cups in Australia and Dubai.” Working with the greatest match officials and players has given me more umpiring experience. “I’ve learned a lot about my own character and how I react under pressure, so there are a lot of positives,” Nitin said in an interview with PTI.
They always strive to sway those 50-50 decisions in their favour: Menon
Menon went on to say that officiating at home is quite difficult. The explanation given is that Indian players apply a lot of pressure throughout matches in order to capitalise on such half-chance opportunities. Menon feels that being focused in high-pressure circumstances is the key to success for any umpire.
“When India plays in India, there is a lot of hype, and there are a lot of big stars in the Indian team, and they always try to put pressure on you, and they always try to get those 50-50 decisions in their favour, but if we are in control of ourselves under pressure, we don’t focus on what they are trying to do.” It just demonstrates that I am strong enough to manage any scenario rather than being agitated by the strain caused by players. That has given me a lot of confidence,” Menon said.
For cricket updates live, latest cricket news, all cricket current score, cricket daily updates, cricket championship, cricket tournament live, cricket daily and other cricket news follow Livematchupdates.com.
