Ricky Ponting

Calcutta: Australia captain Ricky Ponting wants an overhaul of the existing umpiring panel, saying more elite umpires are needed to avoid the mistakes that blighted the second Test in Sydney.

Blaming the mistakes on exhaustion, Ponting said ICC should enlarge its 10-member Test umpiring panel.

After the first Test at the MCG, the Australian captain said English umpire Mark Benson told him he had been on the road for four months.

“I’ve been talking to the ICC for some time about getting more umpires on the elite panel,” Ponting was quoted as saying in The Herald Sun.

“We talk a lot as players about how much we’re playing. But the same applies to umpires. The umpires could be in Pakistan last week doing a Test match and they’ll be in Perth next week doing us, with only a couple of days in between.

“As a player you never know you’re tired until you get away and have a week off.

“That’s when you realise just how tired you were.”

Benson and his colleague, Jamaica’s Steve Bucknor, were heavily criticised for a series of errors in the second Test that India claimed helped steer Australia to victory.

“I’m sure after four months he (Benson) thought he was as good as gold, but he wouldn’t know how tired he was until he gets a break.

“Players notice even when they are five per cent off. It can be the difference between playing and nicking a shot, or hitting it cleanly. I’m sure it is the same for these guys,” he said.

India’s manager Chetan Chauhan labelled Benson and Bucknor’s efforts as “incompetent”, saying the Indians wanted nothing to do with the pair for the rest of the four-Test series.

Bucknor’s dumping paved the way for New Zealand’s Billy Bowden to stand in the third Test in Perth, starting on Wednesday.

The ICC is due to review its panel of elite umpires in April.

According to one source close to Cricket Australia, there is a growing belief that it is time for the ICC to introduce a third on-field umpire in Tests.

Under this plan, each umpire would officiate for four hours each day, rather than the scheduled six.

“It’s a bloody good idea because it immediately takes a lot of the pressure off these blokes,” the source said.