MELBOURNE, Jan 12: Apparently conceding that umpiring blunders marred the Sydney Test, Australian captain Ricky Ponting has called for stretching ICC’s 10-member Elite Panel, saying some officials are making errors due to exhaustion.

“I’ve been talking to the ICC for some time about getting more umpires on the elite panel. We talk a lot as players about how much we’re playing. But the same applies to umpires,” Ponting said.

“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,” he was quoted as saying by Herald Sun.

Revealing that English umpire Mark Benson, who stood in Sydney, had told him he had been on the road for four months, Ponting said, “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.”

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

Benson and his colleague Steve Bucknor were heavily criticised for a series of errors in the second Test, following which the West Indian was replaced by Billy Bowden for the Perth Test.

Up to 10 controversial decisions, along with the racism row involving Harbhajan Singh, turned the game into a simmering contest that Australia won with 10 minutes to spare.

Meanwhile, according to the report, certain quarters in Cricket Australia are in favour of introducing a third on-field umpire to lessen the burden on them.

If approved by the ICC, each umpire would officiate for four hours, instead of six, every day of a Test match. “It’s a bloody good idea because it immediately takes a lot of the pressure off these blokes,” a CA source was quoted as saying.

“Benson and Bucknor must have spent 33 hours out there in Sydney. That’s a long time to be standing in the field, concentrating on every delivery,” the source said.—Agencies