Lucknow's Tanmay Srivastava to make his IPL debut as umpire

For former junior India World Cupper Tanmay Srivastava, real life in the game has started at 35 after playing serious cricket for 14 years uninterrupted.

- Sharad Deep

LUCKNOW: For former junior India World Cupper Tanmay Srivastava, real life in the game has started at 35 after playing serious cricket for 14 years uninterrupted.

He stands at the one end of the 22-yard strip in a new role and tries to live up to the expectations as an umpire in domestic matches.

Lucknow's Tanmay, who belongs to the new generation of educated cricketers of Uttar Pradesh, will be acting as fourth umpire in as many as eight matches during the upcoming season of the cash-rich Indian Premier League and is feeling excited to handle a bigger role in the domestic cricket.

"Umpiring is the best seat to watch the game and after playing the game for so long, it's great to be involved in the game once again. It's a fresh start for me and I find it a different kind of beginning for me at 35," said Tanmay on Sunday.

From Uttar Pradesh, Kanpur's Sunil Chaturvedi remains the first one to be part of the match officials on the rolls of the Board of Control for Cricket India. Thereafter, another one from Kanpur Satish Gupta did umpiring in international matches in India before Prayagraj's Rohit Prakash and Meerut's Parvinder Singh became the match referees in the recent past.