Picture Credit: Twitter/@ICC
The International Cricket Council on Thursday released a list of 20 members who will be officiating in the Round 1 and Super 12 games of the upcoming T20 World Cup 2021, starting October 17. In the squad, there are 16 umpires- including Aleem Dar, Marais Erasmus, and Rod Tucker who will be officiating in their sixth men's T20 World Cup- and four match referees.
Nitin Menon, who also finds a place in the squad, is the only Indian umpire to be included in the 20-man list. Javagal Srinath of India has been selected for the role of match referee. Meanwhile, the appointment of such a big team for the mega event means there would be neutral umpires in the games, which will be happening for the first time since the post COVID era.
Here is ICC's 20-member squad 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.
Making the announcement on social media, the ICC added, "The officiating personnel for the semi-finals and final of the tournament will be named in due course."
The first match of the marquee event, slated to be played between Oman and Papua New Guinea, will be officiated by Sri Lanka’s Kumar Dharmasena and New Zealand's Chris Gaffaney. Ranjan Madugalle will be the match referee, with Richard Kettleborough the TV umpire and Ahsan Raza the fourth official, informed ICC.
4 teams to qualify from Round 1 to Super 12 stage
It is worth noting that T20 World Cup 2021 will be taking place in two rounds- Round 1 and Super 12, with a total of 45 matches being played in the competition. Round 1 will see twelve matches taking place between eight teams from where a total of two would advance to the Super 12. Interestingly, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have failed to get a direct qualification and hence they would be fighting it out with other teams at Round 1.
Group 1 of Round 1 has Ireland, Netherlands, Sri Lanka and Namibia, while the Group B teams are Oman, Papua New Guinea, Scotland and Bangladesh.