How Much Do Cricket Umpires Get Paid?

Umpires, like their contemporaries in other sports, can have a major impact on cricket betting, even in the era of DRS and third umpire no-ball calls. Kumar Dharmasena’s decision to award six runs when the ball ricocheted off Ben Stokes’ bat changed the 2019 World Cup final, for instance.

It’s a high-stress job, which has only become trickier with the level of scrutiny from television broadcasts and the accessibility of technology like hawk-eye.

What leads people to want to become cricket umpires? How much are they paid? Those questions and several more are answered about the men who can swing a cricket betting event below…

Cricket Umpire Salary

International cricket umpires are paid over £70,000 per year. Match fees will vary depending on the experience levels of each umpire, but a Test usually carries a fee of £3,500. There is roughly £2,200 paid for a one-day international, which works out as much better value for the umpires.

Just 40 overs in the field for a T20i will have a lower payout than an ODI. It’s still a decent rate for an evening’s work, though…

There are plenty of perks with being an ICC umpire. Health, travel, accommodation, and food are all expensed or subsidised. The top umpire each calendar year also receives a bonus of over £7,000, which is a sizeable reward considering the base salary.

Working alongside the umpires, there are match referees. These officials oversee the general play and handle disciplinary issues. As of December 2024, there are six international match referees after Chris Broad’s retirement.

Match referees have an annual base salary roughly half of the umpires. Their match fees are approximately £2,000 for a Test match and £1,100 for an ODI.

How to Become an Umpire

Becoming an umpire requires following a pathway. The ECB website makes this very straightforward after taking part in the introductory course.

Levels one, two, and three are designed for umpires to develop their skills. It allows them to take charge of matches at the top level of club cricket.

Making it into county cricket is where it gets harder. Like players, there are tonnes of umpires aspiring to make it to the county game. Umpires have to accumulate years of experience before they will even be considered for a Division Two County Championship match.

The requirements to make it to the professional game naturally vary from country to country. Each cricketing board has similar pathways, though it’s worth noting India and Australia have different procedures depending on each state.

Current Elite ICC Umpires

Only a small group of umpires make it into the ICC elite group. It takes perseverance and consistently high umpiring standards to become a regular in the international game. Given that only a few make it to this level, cricket fans become very familiar with the elite panel umpires.

• Christopher Gaffaney
• Kumar Dharmasena
• Michael Gough
• Adrian Holdstock
• Nitin Menon
• Paul Reiffel
• Richard Illingworth
• Richard Kettleborough
• Ahsan Raza
• Rodney Tucker
• Joel Wilson
• Sharfuddoula

The Emirates ICC International Panel of Umpires sits below the elite panel. Each of the 12 ICC member nations have four members of the panel, who are allowed to umpire in home men’s and women’s ODIs, T20Is and ICC events.

How much do IPL umpires get paid?

Elite panel umpires get around £2,000 per IPL match. The figures will vary depending on the experience and pedigree of each umpire.

Development umpires have a basic salary of around £600.

What do ICC umpires make from a Test match?

Umpires are paid roughly £3,500 per Test match. The top umpires in the game are likely to stand in between six and 10 Tests per calendar year.

With the inevitable travel and stresses of being an umpire, the ICC provides several other perks, including covering accommodation and food expenses.

What qualifications do umpires need?

Wherever you are in the world, you will need to take an exam to become a cricket umpire. It takes several years to work up to the professional game.

There are FastTrack routes for some former players. International umpires have to take a refresher course every few months.