Nagpur, July 22
City's Ulhas Gandhe is among 10 officials grouped in the newly introduced A category of BCCI umpires. He has been only umpire from Vidarbha who found the place in this category.
Apart from Gandhe, Anil Chaudhary, Madangopal Jayaraman, Virender Kumar Sharma and K N Ananthapadmabhanan Rohan Pandit, Nikhil Patwardhan, Sadashiv Iyer and Navdeep Singh Sidhu are also part of the A category.
Gandhe who is an employees of Accountant General (A&E) Maharashtra, Nagpur has officiated 81 first class matches fo far. He has officiated 35 IPL matches as an onfield umpire 13 as third umpire and 34 as the fourth umpire.
Apart from it he has also officiated women's IPL and international mathces. He was the fourth umpire in the Test and one-day matches.
He has cleared BCCI umpiring exam in 2006 and has 14 years experience of umpiring in BCCI national tournaments.
Apart from it he had also played 37 Ranji Trophy matches for Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) before retiring in 2004. He also played Duleep and Deodhar Trophy in the years 1996, 1997 and 1998.