BCCI unhappy with Simon Taufel

Simon Taufel's role as mentor to Indian umpires has come under the scanner with the Indian cricket board (BCCI) expressing dissatisfaction with the Australian's commitment to the job. TOI has learnt that BCCI may not renew the former international umpire's contract after September.

A year after he retired in 2012, Taufel was roped in by BCCI at a hefty fee to educate domestic-level umpires. Taufel is currently paid around $50,000 for a year but many within the board feel he "hasn't done justice" to the high salary ."The board wants to cut out unnecessary expenditure. Much was expected of Taufel but his work over the past couple of years hasn't been satisfactory . The board is willing to look at someone else," a top BCCI official told TOI, adding: "He spent very little time in India. If you add up the days he spends before the Ranji Trophy and the IPL, he interacts with Indian umpires at the most for a fortnight a year. It is not worth paying him so much."
When Taufel took over, India had not a representative in the ICC's elite panel for many years, in fact since the retirement of S Venkataraghavan. S Ravi managed to break in last year, with C Shamshuddin and Anil Chaudhary finding their places in the list of on-field umpires in the ICC's international panel.
"He was initially given a two-year contract. But his performance was reviewed last year and it was decided he should be given only one-year contracts. There's no denying that there has been a healthy change since he took over but our umpires too have evolved a lot," noted another BCCI official. "If there is a change in ICC regulation or something like that, the board can always hire the services of a professional."
Indian umpiring courted controversy with Vineet Kulkarni being dropped from the ICC panel after the World T20 this year. TOI had reported on Feb 24 that the BCCI was planning to withdraw his name from the ICC panel following complaints from Team India and domestic teams and allegations he was fast-tracked into the panel. Taufel, who was named ICC's umpire of the year in 2004 and 2008, also resigned from his post of ICC's umpire performance and training manager last October.