In a rare gathering, around 25 BCCI umpires from one particular batch (1997-98) are celebrating a grand silver jubilee at a three-day function (June 11-13) in Agra. Interestingly, out of 35, who cleared the examination in 1997-98, seven umpires—Ganesh Iyer, Ajit Datar, Anil Dandekar, Umesh Dubey, Manohar Pawar, Chandrakant Mhase and Rajesh Deshpande—are from Mumbai.

The group, however, will be missing three of their batch mates—Vilas Bandiwdekar and Vilas Karhadkar (both from Mumbai) and SM Raju (Chennai), who have passed away. The idea of coming together with families to recall their 25-year umpiring journey, was initiated by Jamshedpur-based Ravi Shankar, Ahmedabad’s Kamlesh Sharma and Iyer, who is the chairman of the reunion committee.