ICC announces umpires and match referee appointments for upcoming Test and ODI series
The ICC today announced match referee and umpire appointments for upcoming Test and ODI series taking place in South Africa, New Zealand, India and the West Indies. A three-Test and five-ODI series between South Africa and Pakistan begins tomorrow (Thursday) with the first Test in Centurion.
The entire series will be overseen by Chris Broad from the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Match Referees and the first Test will be umpired by Steve Bucknor and Billy Doctrove from the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires. The action will move to Port Elizabeth for the second Test, beginning on 19 January. Standing in that match will be Peter Parker, from the Emirates International Panel of ICC Umpires, and Doctrove. The third Test will take place in Cape Town from 26 to 30 January with Bucknor and Parker appointed to umpire the match.
The players will then exchange their whites for coloured clothing and embark on a five-match ODI series. The first ODI in Centurion will be umpired by Peter Parker and an umpire appointed by the host country. Steve Bucknor will then take over for the following two ODIs, in Durban and Port Elizabeth. Again, he will be joined in the middle by a locally appointed umpire. The final two ODIs of the series, in Cape Town and Johannesburg, will be officiated by a locally appointed umpire, and Russell Tiffin of the Emirates International Panel of ICC Umpires.
The three ODIs in New Zealand between the Black Caps and Australia for the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy will be overseen by Mike Procter of the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Match Referees. Aleem Dar of the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires will stand in all those games, along with an umpire appointed by the home country. India will play a total of eight home ODIs during January and February, four against the West Indies and four against Sri Lanka. Alan Hurst of the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Match Referees will oversee all eight matches.
The four-match series between India and the West Indies will be umpired by Billy Bowden of the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires and a locally appointed umpire. The four-match series between India and Sri Lanka will be umpired by Simon Taufel of the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires and a locally appointed umpire. Prior to the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 in the West Indies, there will be a short tri-series to be held in Antigua between Bangladesh, Canada and Bermuda, who will all be participating in the CWC.
Rudi Koertzen of the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires will stand in all three of those ODIs along with a locally appointed umpire. The match referee for those games has not yet been appointed and will be announced in due course. Appointments for the ODI tri-series between Australia, England and New Zealand in Australia that gets underway in Melbourne on Friday were announced previously.
Appointments for other upcoming series, including the umpires for the tri-series involving Kenya, Scotland and Canada in Mombasa (17-24 January), the ICC World Cricket League in Nairobi (30 January -7 February) and Bangladesh v Zimbabwe ODI series (4-10 February) will be announced in due course.