The International Cricket Council (ICC) has decided to retain the same group of Elite Panel Umpires as well as match referees.
Umpire Sundaram Ravi is the only Indian to make the list. Aleem Dar, Kumar Dharmasena, Marais Erasmus, Chris Gaffaney, Ian Gould, Richard Illingworth, Richard Kettleborough, Nigel Llong, Bruce Oxenford, Paul Reiffel and Rod Tucker are the others to make the list. The decision to retain the umpires was made after annual review and selection process.
It is believed India does not have a great history to produce umpires. Apart from Srinivas Raghavan Venkataraghvan and S Ravi, no other umpire has made it to ICC’s Elite Panel. The 51-year-old umpire from Bangalore made his umpiring debut in 2011. Since then he has officiated in 20 tests, 30 ODIS and 18 T20Is so far.
The decision to retain the panel of umpires was made by the ICC Umpires Selection Panel consisting of Chairman and ICC General Manager-Cricket, Geoff Allardice, ICC Chief Match Referee Ranjan Madugalle, ex-England player, coach, umpire and now a commentator –David ‘Bumble’ Lloyd, and Srinivas Venkataraghavan, the former India off-spinner and international umpire.
The Governing Body of the game has also decided to retain the Panel of Match Referee. David Boon, Chris Broad, Jeff Crowe, Ranjan Madugalle, Andy Pycroft, Javagal Srinath and Richie Richardson are the seven names that make the list.
– by Atharva Apte
