Hockey India has decided to add more structure to the gradation of tournament officials to help improve the standards of officiating.
The Hockey India registered tournament officials which include technical delegate, umpire managers, technical officials, judges and umpires will be divided into three grades - Hockey India Grade 1, Hockey India Grade 2 and Hockey India Grade 3.
The grading will be done out of 100, (percentage-wise) with emphasis for umpires being based on performance reports (from all domestic tournaments), fitness test results and online test results whereas for technical officials it will be based on the performance reports (from all domestic tournaments) and online test results.
The appointment of officials for domestic matches throughout India will be done on the basis of the updated gradation of officials. The umpires/officials, who produce excellent results in performance reports, fitness test results and online test results will be part of Hockey India Grade 1 and so on.
"Adding more structure to the gradation of Hockey India tournament officials will help in the long run to assess the performance of each and every registered Hockey India tournament official. All officials will definitely try their best to be part of the Hockey India Grade 1 category by giving their best. A healthy competition will be developed within the group which will further help Hockey India to raise the standards of officiating in our country," said Mohd. Mushtaque Ahmad, President Hockey India.
Scores of above 80 will be eligible for Hockey India Grade 1 category, scores between 71 and 79 will be eligible for Hockey India Grade 2 and scores between 60 and 70 for umpires and scores between 50 and 70 for technical officials will be eligible for Hockey India Grade 3 category.
Further, any new interested tournament officials can have a chance to join the Hockey India potential list, once they reviewed after being nominated by the Hockey India member units. To be in contention for the nomination, the official must be below 25 years in case of umpires and below 35 years in case of technical officials, should have passed the HI online tests, must have minimum two years of experience in state and district championships and shall be nominated by their state member units.
The nominations can only be made through the Hockey India member unit portal via the official registration process which will begin from July 1.
( With inputs from IANS )