The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Friday announced 16 umpires and four match referees, including Pakistan’s Ahsan Raza for the league stage of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 in India.
The list comprises 12 umpires from the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires, including Ahsan Raza.
The other umpires include Chris Brown, Kumar Dharmasena, Marais Erasmus, Chris Gaffaney, Michael Gough, Adrian Holdstock, Richard Illingworth, Richard Kettleborough, Nitin Menon, Paul Reiffel, Sharfuddoula Ibne Shaid, Rod Tucker, Alex Wharf, Joel Wilson and Paul Wilson.
This experienced group features three umpires who officiated in the Cricket World Cup 2019 final. This includes Dharmasena, Erasmus and Tucker.
Meanwhile, the remaining four umpires belong to the ICC Emerging Umpire Panel, including Sharfuddoula Ibne Shahid (Bangladesh), Paul Wilson (Australia), Alex Wharf (England) and Chris Brown (New Zealand).
On the other hand, the Emirates ICC Elite Panel of Match Referees for the event are Jeff Crowe (New Zealand), Andy Pycroft (Zimbabwe), Richie Richardson (West Indies) and Javagal Srinath (India).
The tournament opener between England and New Zealand on October 5 will have Nitin Menon and Kumar Dharmasena as on-field umpires, with Paul Wilson serving as the TV umpire, and Sharfuddoula as the fourth umpire. Andy Pycroft will act as the match referee. The officials for the semi-finals and final will be announced later in the tournament.
“We are pleased to announce the match officials who will be officiating at the biggest ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup ever,” Sean Easey, ICC Senior Manager – Umpires and Referees said. “This group is the very best from around the world and we believe that they are ready to perform what will be a challenging job with the eyes of the global cricketing community focussed on every decision.
“We are confident that they will do an excellent job and wish them all the best of luck for what will surely be a World Cup to remember.”
Wasim Khan, ICC General Manager – Cricket, believed that they would bring skill, experience and world-class standards to the World Cup 2023.
“To deliver an event of this magnitude you require high-performing individuals at every level. The ICC Elite panel of umpires, referees, and emerging group of umpires involved will bring immense skills, experience and world-class standards to this World Cup. We are delighted with the group that we have assembled for this tournament,” Wasim Khan said.
He was also pleased at the presence of ICC Emerging Panel members in the event.
“The ICC Cricket Operations department takes great pride and effort in operating a robust and meritocratic selection procedure with the help of our Member Boards. Our competitive pathway system continues to see the development and emergence of high-quality match officials across the game,” he added.
“We are pleased that four members of the ICC Emerging Umpire Panel have earned the opportunity to be part of this showcase event and we wish them, and all the other match officials involved all the very best for the tournament,” he concluded.
The ICC Men’s World Cup 2023 will commence on Thursday, 5 October with the aforementioned clash between 2019 finalists England and New Zealand at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, while the final will be played at the same venue on Sunday, 19 November.
The tournament will be played in ten different venues – Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Dharamsala, Delhi, Chennai, Lucknow, Pune, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Kolkata.
Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram in addition to Hyderabad will host the warm-up matches from 29 September to 3 October.
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