Umpires often happen to be the unsung heroes on a cricket field. With the minimal attention that they receive for the job they do, often a lot of criticism is showered upon them for some of their iffy umpiring calls. With the advent of DRS and technology, an umpiring howler has become even more prominent in this current day and age.
In the recent past, the quality of international umpiring has hogged the unnecessary limelight for some umpiring blunders that were made in a few of the major ICC tournaments.
The ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 was one such event where questions were raised against ICC for the quality of umpiring in the entire event. While it is definitely one of the tougher jobs in cricket. even the umpires are accountable to the ICC for their job on a cricket field.
The ICC, after a lot of criticism, was targeted towards umpires in the recent past, demoted a couple of umpires from their elite panel. While it results in a loss of enough opportunities for officiating an international match, umpires also incur a financial loss due to a reduced annual fee.
Here’s a look at how much do the umpires get paid annually and their per match fees at the international and the domestic matches:
For an Umpire belonging to the ICC Elite panel, the annual salary varies from 35,000 US Dollars (Rs 24,00,000 approx) to 45,000 US Dollars (Rs 31,00,000 approx).
For standing in a Test match, each umpire is paid an approximate match fee of 3,000 US Dollars (Rs 2,00,000 approx) while they pocket an amount of 1000 US Dollars (Rs 70,000 approx) in a T20I fixture. For an ODI encounter, ICC pays 2200 US Dollars (1,50,000 approx) for each umpire in a particular game.
Being a member of the ICC elite panel is highly beneficial for an umpire. In such a case, each umpire manages to officiate eight to ten Test matches while standing in 10-15 ODIs in a year. This usually takes the annual salary of an umpire to 46,000 US Dollars (Rs 32,00,000 approx) along with their ICC annual fee.
While umpires officiate in international fixtures, they also get to work in various T20 leagues around the globe. IPL, which is regarded as one of the lucrative leagues, lifts the financial income for an umpire by many folds. For each IPL fixture, an umpire is treated with nearly 2500 US Dollars.
Apart from their match fees and annual fee, each umpire associated with the ICC gets to travel places in business class. They have special arrangements in team hotels and are treated with equal care just like any other player.
For a player who thinks or hanging the boots, umpiring still happens to be one of the most illustrious jobs associated with cricket. However, one has to pass through a series of tests in order to affirm their ability to do justice with the tireless job of umpiring.
