‘Pitch’ perfect

Noted umpires and brothers Marcus and Ricky Couto talk about their long innings in cricket; hot-button topics like the Decision Review System; and their memories of growing up with Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli The introduction of Twenty20 cricket in February 2005 kick-started a major evolution in the gentleman’s game. The sport, along with its players, saw new rules coupled with improvised cricketing shots and deliveries. Lethal fast bowlers started leaking runs, batsmen’s strike rate soared. But many overlooked the umpires.

Of late, umpires have been raising eyebrows for poor decisions. English adjudicator Richard Illingworth’s no-ball call — during the recent Test between New Zealand and Australia — stirred the cricket world. Ever since Decision Review System (DRS), unveiled during the India-Sri Lanka Test in 2008, generated a debate regarding decisions, the credibility of umpires came under the scanner.

“DRS has nothing to do with the credibility of umpires,” says Marcus Couto, a BCCI Panel Umpire, who has officiated over 1,200 domestic matches and two women’s international matches in his 37-year career. “Earlier too, umpires used to make mistakes; it’s not that more mistakes are being made today. It’s just because of technology that you now can notice our mistakes. In fact these days, fewer mistakes are made.”

A gold medallist in the Cricket Umpiring exam conducted by the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) in 1981, 55-year-old Marcus is no ordinary gentleman. One of his greatest stories does not have to deal with his umpiring skills: It was Marcus who broke the news of Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli’s 664-run partnership in the Harris Shield Tournament in February 1988, which was a world record.

Marcus’ announcement also shone the spotlight on The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Scorers of India (ACSSI), which he founded in 1987 along with Shirish Konkar.

While Marcus may have been connected with Sachin and Kambli’s record-setting feat, his brother Ricky, a state-level umpire with MCA for the past 26 years, has an even closer association with the cricket stars: He sat on the same bench in school as Sachin and Kambli.

So when the brothers got together for a chat amidst the lush green lawns at the historic Cricket Club of India, they spoke about the young and mischievous Sachin — full of mirth, apart from scrutinising umpires.

Early meetings Ricky, Sachin and Kambli’s meeting was an unplanned one. The trio studied together at Shardashram Vidyamandir in Dadar.

“I was studying at St Joseph’s Wadala, Sachin at IES King George in Bandra and Kambli was in Our Lady of Dolours in Marine Lines. Kambli used to travel from Kanjur Marg to Marine Lines. We all used to practise with Achrekar sir (Ramakant Achrekar) at Shivaji Park. And sir told us, if you all want to play good cricket, you will have to join Shardashram High School. That very day we all took a decision and joined Shardashram. This was in 1986/87 when we were in Class Seven and from there began our friendship,” said Ricky, who holds the Limca Book record for being the youngest individual to pass the cricket umpire’s exam in India at 16 years and 116 days.

Point of contention The Couto brothers have garnered rich experience sending batsmen on their way or pulling them up for not keeping their foot within the popping crease.

While players, including Indian Cricket Team’s ODI skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni have slammed umpires and their decisions, the veteran umpire brothers have adopted a fairly cool approach in their response.

“It is all said during the heat of the moment. But after some time everything is forgotten. The standard of umpiring has gone up,” says Ricky, while Marcus submits, “Filing a complaint on a particular umpire is wrong An umpire will commit a mistake. We are also human beings. If an umpire’s decision has been overturned, at the end of the day he is happy because players don’t crib because of the mistake.”

The East Indian brothers have seen umpiring evolve and come under intense scrutiny from the media and player fraternity alike. Sledging from players too has been rising, although Marcus points out that it was tough to control back in the day as well.

“Sledging was the worst during our days. In the initial years, we had a very tough time. We had match referees coming to our aid,” he says.

One such unpleasant situation was a Ranji Trophy match at Permit Ground in Balasore between Orissa and Bengal in 1997. “My partner Jaduvendrasingh Jadeja, standing in his 85th BCCI match and I were officiating that match. That year Ganguly (Sourav Ganguly) had won lots of Man of the Match awards from Canada and had just returned from there. I was shocked to see about 8,000-10,000 people gathered to see a Ranji trophy match. Debashish Mohanty was the local hero there along with Sanjay Raul and SS Das. Robin Morris was making his debut for Orissa as a professional. Raul was leading the side (for Orissa). For Bengal we had Ganguly, Devang Gandhi, Nikhil Haldipur, Rohan Gavaskar, Saba Karim, Utpal Chatterjee and other stars Suddenly my partner gave Karim out caught and bowled off Morris, but the batsman refused to walk. My partner looked at me and I signalled to him that’s it’s a clear catch. Karim said, ‘I won’t go.’ My partner came to me and asked, ‘Kya karenge ’ And Ganguly was the next man in and at the boundary line he was hopping and warming up but not entering the field of play. I told my partner that if he does not come in the next minute, we give him timed out. Devang was at the non-striker’s end and he shouted at Ganguly in Bengali to hurry up or else he would be timed out. Ganguly ran and we avoided the situation,” Marcus recounts.

A cue from Sachin If players are harassing umpires on the field, a cue from young Sachin’s mannerisms on the pitch could be taken.

“Many of my decisions went against Sachin. The first time when I saw him at Matunga Gymkhana, he was around 13. He was playing a club match and I had given him run out. He just looked at me and went back. Next day he told Ricky in school, ‘Your brother was standing very far (from the crease).’ He felt he was not run-out. On the field, he never reacted. He used to come to the dressing room many times and told me, you have erred, it was not a snick, or the ball was hitting outside the leg stump,” Marcus, who continues to share a close association with the Little Master, says.

Raising the profile So what constitutes the most difficult decision for both the brothers Ricky says it is catches at short-leg; Marcus, stumping. The brothers also endorsed the idea of veteran cricketers venturing into umpiring, which has now turned into a more lucrative profession.

“It’s good because they have that experience of knowing what is going on in the mind of the players. And because of players coming into umpiring, the honorarium has been increased,” reveals Marcus, whose daughter Joylin, currently a third year college student, is all set to don the umpire’s hat next year.

“Standing in the sun for six to eight hours is not a joke, but today at the local level, the amount is good. Two years ago, we were paid Rs 500 a day, now it is Rs 1,200 a day,” Ricky says.

“At the BCCI level also it is very good. The recent lot of umpires include civil engineers, chartered accountants and software engineers. BCCI umpires are paid Rs 15,000 a day be it a women’s or men’s match. A select few are paid Rs 20,000 a day,” adds Marcus, would like to see Rahul Dravid as an umpire one day.

Sachin stories The talk now drifted towards a young impish Sachin and it was Ricky’s recollections that hogged the limelight.

His memories of Sachin and the long walk after school are vivid. During those days Ricky and Marcus were residents of Wadala village.

“After school, Sachin and I used to walk to Marine Sports Book Stall, see the cricket books and then go to Shivaji Park. There was a bhelwala there. We used to buy four bhels — one Sachin ate, one he gave me and two he used to take home. That was his ritual every day,” Ricky recalls.

While in school, Ricky and Sachin were the bad boys and part of a “deadly gang”.

“We were backbenchers in class. Sachin was very mischievous and academically, an average student. We used to always get punished by teachers. They would make us stand on the bench, sometimes outside the class and sometimes near the blackboard,” Ricky says.

If not in class, during recess, the boys would be naughtier. “During recess we would all be together, we would play mischief with everybody and people used to get frightened of us. Sachin loved his vada pav!”

And apart from cricket, there was another sport Sachin was a champ at — arm wrestling! “No one could beat Sachin at arm wrestling — not even Kambli! Sachin used to play opingo-betingo (a children’s game using the fists) with me. I must have had more fights with Sahin over this game than the runs he’s scored. He used to punch so hard!” says Ricky.

A few years ago when Ricky was at Wankhede Stadium for a Ranjo Trophy game, the members of the cricket team were stunned when Sachin began to hit Ricky. “I had to explain to them, ‘He aamcha game aahe, opingo-betingo.”

Greatness beckoned Tendulkar at a young age when he went to England with the Star Cricket Club under Kailash Gattani in 1988.

“He had just come back from that tour with a big kit bag,” Ricky recalls. “It was something new for me to see such a big kit bag. One of our friends told Sachin that the kit bag is so big that you can easily fit Ricky in it. Like always he was ready for the challenge. After a period was over, he emptied the bag, put me in it and zipped it up and showed that ‘I’ve won this also’.”

Ricky and Sachin used to visit each other’s homes and continue from they left off in class.“Sometimes I used to go to his place and we used to play with a soft ball. He also used to come to my mine and eat his favourite dish, mutton vindaloo, while Kambli’s was pork sorpotel.”

Ricky says the legend in the making had a habit of signing on any pieces of paper he could get his hands on. “Sachin had a peculiar habit of signing on any piece of paper in school. Any piece of paper he would get, he would sign on it, I don’t know why, maybe he was practising for the future,” Ricky laughs.

The friendship reached its pinnacle when the Master Blaster raised a toast at Ricky’s wedding in 2005. “When the date was fixed, Marcus told him the date and he was ready to come for the nuptials at Gorai. We told him to come for the reception and he said that he would raise the toast for me. He was there before time,” he adds.

And are the brothers still in touch with Sachin “We are in touch with him. He has not changed at all,” says Ricky. “He is the same as he was in school. I met him at Bandra-Kurla Complex last before he went for Cricket All Stars. We meet him on and off.”