ICC announce umpire and match referee appointments for ICC Cricket World Cup 2015

Marais Erasmus (File Photo)

The International Cricket Council (ICC) today announced the umpire and match referee appointments for the pool stage matches of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, which will be staged in Australia and New Zealand from 14 February to 29 March.

Marais Erasmus and Nigel Llong will be the on-field umpires for the tournament opener between New Zealand and Sri Lanka in Christchurch on 14 February. S. Ravi and Simon Fry will be the third and fourth umpires, respectively, while David Boon will be the match referee.

On the same day in a day/night fixture in Melbourne, Australia will lock horns with England in a match which will be umpired by Aleem Dar and Kumar Dharmasena. Billy Bowden will act as the third umpire, while Joel Wilson will perform the fourth umpire’s duties. Jeff Crowe will be the match referee.

Apart from Mr Boon and Mr Crowe, Chris Broad, Ranjan Madugalle and Roshan Mahanama will share the match referees’ responsibilities during the 44-day tournament in which 49 matches will be played. All the five are members of the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Match Referees.

All the 12 members of the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires are available for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015. Apart from the four on-field umpires in action on the opening day, Bruce Oxenford, Ian Gould, Paul Reiffel, Richard Illingworth, Richard Kettleborough, Rod Tucker and Steve Davis will feature during the event.

Fry, Ravi and Wilson are members of the Emirates International Panel of ICC Umpires. They will be joined by Johan Cloete, Chris Gaffaney, Michael Gough, Ranmore Martinesz and Ruchira Palliyaguru during ICC’s pinnacle event.

Meanwhile, the ICC has also confirmed umpire appointments for the 14 warm-up matches that will be played in the lead up to the tournament proper. These matches will be played in Christchurch, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney.