T20 World Cup: Match officials announced; neutral umpires named for all contests

With just a few days left for the commencement of the T20 World Cup, the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Thursday announced names of umpires and match referees for the upcoming marquee event. ICC in its official release announced that 16 umpires and four-match referees for the Round 1 and Super 12 stages. As per the ICC, the selection of 20 match officials means that, for the first time since the COVID pandemic, there will be neutral umpires for all matches of the T20 World Cup, slated to take place from 17 October to 14 November. 

Out of the 16 umpires, Aleem Dar from Pakistan, Marais Erasmus from South Africa, and Rod Tucker from Australia will be officiating in their sixth T20 World Cup. 

Sri Lanka’s Kumar Dharmasena to umpire first match of T20 World Cup

Furthermore, the ICC also announced that the opening match of the T20 World Cup will be officiated by Sri Lanka’s Kumar Dharmasena. Kumar Dharmasena was one of the on-field umpires during the T20 World Cup 2019 final along with Chris Gaffaney in which West Indies emerged victoriously. Apart from this, Ranjan Madugalle will be the match referee, with Richard Kettleborough the TV umpire and Ahsan Raza the fourth official. 

The  England vs West Indies encounter in the Super 12 Group A clash will be overseen by Aleem Dar and Marais Erasmus, with Australia's David Boon as the match referee and Chris Brown on TV duty. The ICC also stated that the officiating personnel for the semi-finals and final of the tournament will be named in later.

Full list of match officials

Match Referees: David Boon, Jeff Crowe, Ranjan Madugalle, Javagal Srinath.

Umpires: Chris Brown, Aleem Dar, Kumar Dharmasena, Marais Erasmus, Chris Gaffaney, Michael Gough, Adrian Holdstock, Richard Illingworth, Richard Kettleborough, Nitin Menon, Ahsan Raza, Paul Reiffel, Langton Rusere, Rod Tucker, Joel Wilson, Paul Wilson.

India to play Australia & England In warm-up games

Earlier, the ICC on Wednesday announced a set of warm-up matches teams are slated to play. The warm-up matches are scheduled to be held while the group stage matches will be ongoing as the top eight ranked teams according to ICC have already qualified for the Super 12 stage. As per the schedule released by ICC, India will play two warm-up games, one against Australia and one against England. The two warm-up games are scheduled for October 18 and October 20 with two matches a day. 

(Image: ICC/Twitter)