Anil Chaudhary will not umpire IPL 2025 but will adorn a new role; Here are details

Anil Chaudhary did the umpire's duty during the past 17 editions of the IPL but he has now slipped into the role of a commentator this season after turning 60 last week. It effectively signalled his retirement from officiating the game. Chaudhary's farewell game happened to be the Ranji Trophy final between Kerala and Vidarbha last month at Nagpur and his last international appearance came in September 2023.

Overall, he officiated in 12 Tests, 49 ODIs and 64 T20s.

With retirement on the horizon, Chaudhary started planning for the future and got into regional commentary which has grown exponentially in the last two years.


He will be part of the Haryanvi feed in the IPL beginning March 22 with occasional stints in Hindi commentary.

Between 2013 and 2025, Chaudhary umpired in 12 Tests, 49 ODIs and 64 T20Is, 131 IPL matches (the most on-field games by any umpire along with S Ravi), 91 first-class matches, 114 List A games & 278 T20s.

The Ranji Trophy final between Vidarbha and Kerala, which was held between February 26 and March 2 in Nagpur was Chaudhary's last BCCI-affiliated game. The India vs Australia ODI match on September 27 was his last international match as an umpire.

Interestingly, it was at Rajkot in an India versus Australia match that Chaudhary made his international debut too, back on October 10, 2013, though it was a T20I match.

While those in the know of things say that Chaudhary has 'retired' since he's 60, Chaudhary claimed that he had moved on from umpiring to commentary now. In fact, he's the first Indian umpire to have moved full-time to commentating after officiating in international matches.

"I've transformed into a commentator now. It's a bit out of the box for me, broadcasting. For the last six months, I've been behind the mike. I commentated during the Champions Trophy in Feb-March, though I took a 'break' during that time for umpiring in the Ranji Trophy final. I've received very good feedback about my umpiring. The viewers feel that I give a different perspective, since an umpire's perspective is completely different. People feel that I say interesting things on TV commentary," Chaudhary told TOI.

Chaudhary is the only Indian to officiate in the Asia Cup final-he stood in the middle during the the summit (T20) clash between Pakistan and Sri Lanka on September 11, 2022.

(with ToI inputs)