Too early for Srinath to be a match referee?

Javagal Srinath had barely moved into his new role as a commentator that he is now offered the 'responsible' position of a match referee by the ICC according to this report on rediff.com. This may not be the end of his fledgling commentating career, but there are certainly questions to be asked about the wisdom of appointing a player whose playing career has ended just a couple of seasons ago as a referee.

It will boil down to the question of fairness and toughness -- can the referee be absolutely fair without being inflenced by personal prejudices and emotions, against players with whom he shared dressing rooms and intense rivalries with? For example, if Srinath has to haul up Rahul Dravid (or in a more unlikely scenario now, Sourav Ganguly) to reprimand or fine or suspend them, will he be able to do it?

Of course, it is not impossible and he may well have the objectivity and mental toughness to handle the tricky moments--- but why create a scenario that could easily have been avoided. A few years down the line, with the clarity of vision that distance from the game as a player will lend, would have been so much more appropriate.

Cricketers from the past generation, such as Dilip Vengsarkar or Shivlal Yadav, both with considerable administrative and management experience would have made better choices at this stage.