World Cup: ICC announces umpires, referees for group games

 

The International Cricket Council (ICC) today announced umpire and match referee appointments for the warm-up and group stage matches for its flagship event - the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 - which will be staged from 19 February to 2 April in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka.

Steve Davis of the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires and Kumar Dharmasena of the Emirates International Panel of ICC Umpires and a former World Cup winner with Sri Lanka in 1996, will stand in the tournament opener which will be played between Bangladesh and India in Mirpur on Saturday 19 February.

Billy Doctrove and Asad Rauf, both from the elite panel, will be the third and fourth umpires, respectively while Ranjan Madugalle of the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Match Referee will be the match referee.

The 58-year-old Davis has so far umpired in 95 ODIs. If all goes according to plan, on 9 March in New Delhi he will become the 14th umpire to complete a century of ODIs when he will officiate in the India-Netherlands match.

The 39-year-old Dharmasena, who played 31 Tests and 141 ODIs as on off-spinner for Sri Lanka from 1993-2004, has officiated in 19 ODIs to date.

In the ICC Cricket World Cup 1996, Dharmasena was Sri Lanka’s second most successful bowler, along with Chaminda Vaas, with six wickets while the table was topped by Muttiah Muralidaran who took seven wickets. In the final against Australia at Lahore, Dharmasena had match figures of 10-0-47-1 as Sri Lanka won by seven wickets with 22 balls to spare.

Besides Davis and Dharmasena, others who will share the on-field responsibilities in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 include ICC Umpire of the Year 1009 and 2010, Aleem Dar, Marais Erasmus, Ian Gould, Daryl Harper, Tony Hill, Asoka de Silva, four-time ICC Umpire of the Year Simon Taufel, Rod Tucker (all from the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires), Richard Kettleborough, Nigel Llong, Bruce Oxenford, Amish Saheba and Shahvir Tarapore (all from the Emirates International Panel of ICC Umpires).

The match referees for the event, besides Madugalle, are Chris Broad, Jeff Crowe, Roshan Mahanama and Andy Pycroft (all from the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Match Referees).