Anil Chaudhary ends his innings as international and IPL umpire | Cricket News

Anil Chaudhary (Photo Source: X)

MUMBAI: A familiar face will be missing amongst the umpires for IPL 2025. Anil Chaudhary’s more than a decade long, distinguished innings as an international, IPL and BCCI umpire has ended.
Between 2013 and 2025, Chaudhary umpired in 12 Tests, 49 ODIs and 64 T20Is, 131 IPL matches (the most on-field games by any umpire along with S Ravi), 91 first-class matches, 114 List A games & 278 T20s.
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The Ranji Trophy final between Vidarbha and Kerala, which was held between February 26 and March 2 in Nagpur was Chaudhary’s last BCCI-affiliated game. The India vs Australia ODI match on September 27 was his last international match as an umpire.
Interestingly, it was at Rajkot in an India versus Australia match that Chaudhary made his international debut too, back on October 10, 2013, though it was a T20I match.
While those in the know of things say that Chaudhary has ‘retired’ since he’s 60, Chaudhary claimed that he had moved on from umpiring to commentary now. In fact, he’s the first Indian umpire to have moved full-time to commentating after officiating in international matches.
“I’ve transformed into a commentator now. It’s a bit out of the box for me, broadcasting. For the last six months, I’ve been behind the mike. I commentated during the Champions Trophy in Feb-March, though I took a ‘break’ during that time for umpiring in the Ranji Trophy final. I’ve received very good feedback about my umpiring. The viewers feel that I give a different perspective, since an umpire’s perspective is completely different. People feel that I say interesting things on TV commentary,” Chaudhary told TOI.
In Chaudhary’s glittering umpiring CV are a few special, unpredented feats. He’s the most experienced umpire in the IPL history, having umpired in 226 matches-131 as on-field umpire, 21 as the fourth umpire and the rest as a TV umpire.
Chaudhary is the only Indian to officiate in the Asia Cup final-he stood in the middle during the the summit (T20) clash between Pakistan and Sri Lanka on September 11, 2022. He’s perhaps the only umpire to have officated in five Ranji Trophy finals.
Chaudhary, though, won’t give up umpiring altogether. “I’m going to umpire in T20 leagues in UAE and the US now. So, I’ll play a dual role as an umpire and as a commentator. I’m also launching a You-tube channel called ‘Umpire’s call by Anil Chaudhary,’ and I’m forming a company, which will be called ‘Voice & Verdict’ in which I’ll train the umpires,” he said.
BCCI introduces 7 new Indian umpires for IPL-2025
Meanwhile, in a bid to give them exposure to high-pressure, high-profile matches, the BCCI has introduced seven new India umpires for IPL-2025. They are: Swaroopanand Kannur, Abhijeet Bhattacharya, Parashar Joshi, Anish Sahastrabuddhe, Keyur Kelkar, Koushik Gandhi and Abhijeet Bengeri. Veteran umpires S Ravi and CK Nandan will be the mentors of the umpires in IPL-2025.
Michael Gough, Chris Gaffaney and Adrian Holdstock will be the three international umpires in the IPL. Interestingly, former Sri Lankan off-spinner Kumar Dharmasena is amongst the nine umpires who officiated in IPL-2024, but won’t be seen in IPL-2025.