Cricket Finland long-term commitment to quality cricket will be crowned in the World Cup Sub-Regional Qualifiers in July at many levels. In addition to the hosting of the Qualifiers A and B and having Finnish men’s team selected to play in the qualifier A, two Finnish umpires, Sriharsha Kuchimanchi and Srinidhi Ravindra, are part of the World Cup Sub-Regional Qualifiers’ umpiring team.
Sriharsha Kuchimanchi has started his umpiring career in Finland in year 2013 when Cricket Finland had been looking for people to fill umpiring roles for the national leagues. Besides domestic games in Finland, he has been umpiring in India and South Africa between 2016-2022. So far he has umpired over 500 cricket games.
“Since cricket is a summer sport, I was able to take advantage of the climates in India, South Africa and Finland and kept my calendar busy. I also wanted to invest my time in training Cricket Finland umpires and played a pioneer role in setting up umpiring panels from 2017 onwards. Thanks to the support from Cricket Finland leadership group, my parents in India and to my wife Mrs. Padmaja for their ever-constant support. Representing Finland at the International Cricket is a one life-time opportunity which I will cherish forever. I hope to make positive impact for the beautiful game of cricket. My appointment with ICC WCQ 2022 is also proof to the progress of club development in Finland. Hopefully this enables more cricket enthusiasts to take up the umpiring role”, says Sriharsha Kuchimanchi.
Mr. Ravindra, having umpired over 250 domestic games, will also be joining Mr. Kuchimanchi and WCQ umpiring team.
“Cricket is not just a game for me, but rather an emotion. I arrived in Finland to do my Masters Degree and along the way I discovered myself through my passion: cricket umpiring. Being an umpire has influenced my life in many ways and the credit goes to ICC, Cricket Finland and especially my dad who has always supported me. Standing as an umpire in the World Cup Qualifiers provides me the best seat in the house to witness some great talent. I also believe that it will be a stepping-stone to fulfilling my dream of becoming an ICC Elite umpire one day. I hope this would also encourage other young umpires to take this as a profession,” Srinidhi Ravindra plans.
