Patel Wins CNSW Representative Umpire of the Year

NSWCUSA’s Sharad Patel has been recognised as the NSW Representative Umpire of the Year for 2024-25, presented at the Cricket NSW Awards Night last night at the SCG.

In his third season as a member of the Cricket Australia Contracted Umpire Panel, he enjoyed a stellar season officiating matches in a majority of CA domestic competitions.

In men’s programs, he umpired one match in both the Sheffield Shield and One-Day Cup, and two in the BBL and Second XI, whilst in women’s competitions, he umpired six matches in the WBBL, including the Eliminator, and a semi-final and the Final of the inaugural T20 Spring Challenge.

He was also appointed by CA to the rain-affected Prime Minister’s XI match against India, and was Fourth Umpire for an ODI and a T20 during the women’s Ashes in January.

Patel had an outstanding season with a correct decision-making percentage of 98.14 across all CA appointments, the highest of all CA contracted umpires from New South Wales.

NSW State Umpiring Manager Darren Goodger praised Patel, “Sharad is a most worthy recipient of the Cricket NSW Representative Umpire of the Year.

We offer our congratulations to him on receiving this prestigious award from CNSW and on being a first-time winner. We also thank CNSW for continuing to recognise match officials at its annual awards night.”

In NSW Premier Cricket, he was appointed to the Men’s First Grade Limited Overs Cup Final and the Men’s Second Grade Final – during this season he also officiated his 100th men’s first grade match.

Off-field, he is a strong ambassador for the match officiating community in New South Wales, he is heavily involved in training and development programs to benefit other umpires and mentors fellow Premier Cricket umpires, including members of the South Asian community.

Administratively, he also volunteers as a member of the Cricket NSW Competitions Subcommittee and as a Board Director of NSWCUSA.

The award was selected from the 11 umpires representing New South Wales officiating in Cricket Australia’s professional competitions, with eight umpires on the Contracted Umpire Panel, and three members of the NSW State Umpire Panel.

Cricket NSW and NSWCUSA would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of the umpires on these three panels, while also thanking all of our wonderful officials across the entire cricket landscape for their service to cricket in season 2024-25.