'Elite panel of umpires doing great job'

An ICC official defended the elite panel saying they were doing a good job despite controversial decisions in the Bangalore Test.

The newly appointed ICC umpires' high performance manager on Wednesday defended the elite panel of umpires saying they were doing a fantastic job despite controversy over decisions in the recent Test between Australia and India.

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"(The) ICC has put in so much work to improve umpiring and my appointment as high performance manager is aimed at further enhancing the overall skill of eight elite umpires who have achieved a 92-94 percent success," Keith Medlycott told AFP.

"(The) ICC is pushing it as hard as they can, the eight elite panel umpires have done a fantastic job in the most pressurised situations," he said.

The 39-year-old former left arm spinner from England, who coached Surrey to three county titles between 1997-2003, took over early this month to introduce a training and development programmes to cover the physical and mental condition of all ICC contracted umpires.

Medlycott is on the first leg of a 30-day fact-finding tour and flies to Chennai before going to Dhaka, Karachi and Mumbai to review Test matches at those venues.