LUCKNOW, Sept. 28 -- It sounds a bit surprising but true as all 32 aspirants, who appeared for the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association's state panel scorers' examination in August have failed. The Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA) allowed the candidates to write their answers in Hindi even though the question paper itself was in English, leaving many struggling to comprehend technical instructions and scoring terminology. UPCA had organised the written test as part of its annual selection process for the state panel. The fact that none passed the test prompted the association to arrange for a retest a few days ago. Interestingly, the UPCA in its pre-test circular this July (which is in possession of HT) clearly mentioned that the candidates must have good command in English, reading, writing and speaking as well, but it allowed the candidates to write their papers in Hindi. It also states that only qualified candidates through the written exam will be called for practical and viva, but even after their failures, everybody was asked to appear in the re-exams. According to Manoj Pundeer, head of the UPCA's umpires and scorers committee, the poor performance was largely due to candidates' limited proficiency in English. "Most of them are good at scoring, but they couldn't understand the questions properly because the paper was in English," Pundeer said. Pundeer also used the occasion to urge scorers to improve their English ahead of higher-level examinations. "In the BCCI exam, you won't have the option to write in Hindi. Everything will be in English - questions, answers, even the software interface," he said. UPCA officials have also hinted at conducting special coaching sessions or workshops to help scorers brush up on English cricketing terminology and familiarise themselves with the format of BCCI-style question papers which are in English. "We can't keep ignoring this issue. If our scorers are to represent Uttar Pradesh at the national level, they must be comfortable with English," Pundeer said. Uttar Pradesh's first-ever match official in the BCCI, Sunil Chaturvedi, who celebrated 25 years of service as a match referee, having overseen roughly 300 domestic games across tournaments such as the Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy, and Irani Cup, alongside 'A' team multi-day and limited-overs series, also said that without proficiency in English, growth as a match official is very difficult. "BCCI doesn't permit one to conduct exams in Hindi as then all other state units will conduct exams in their regional languages," Chaturvedi said....