DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, CMC – Umpire Joel Wilson of Trinidad & Tobago and former West Indies captain turned match referee Sir Richie Richardson are the only two match officials from the Caribbean that have made the cut for the ICC Men’s Twenty20 World Cup in June.
The International Cricket Council (ICC), the sport’s world organising body, announced 26 match officials comprising 20 umpires and six match referees for the first round of the tournament to be staged in the Caribbean and the United States of America.
Long-time international umpires’ panel members such as Nigel Duguid of Guyana, as well as the Barbadian duo of Gregory Brathwaite and Leslie Reifer Jr, and seasoned match referee Reon King, a former Guyana and West Indies pacer, have not found favour.
Instead, the ICC said that Jayaraman Madanagopal of India, Sam Nogajski of Australia, Allahudien Paleker of South Africa, and the Pakistani duo of Rashid Riaz and Asif Yaqoob will make their senior men’s event debuts as umpires.
“We are pleased to announce our team of match referees and umpires for the historic ICC Men’s T20 World Cup,” ICC general manager for cricket, Wasim Khan said.
“Within the selected cohort, we have a compliment of experienced match officials and other high-performing members who have been recognised for their strong and consistent performances.”
He added: “The throughput from the pathway programme will continue to see the development and emergence of high-quality match officials across the game.
“With 20 teams and 55 matches played over 28 days, this will be the biggest T20 World Cup ever and we are proud of the team we have assembled. We are confident that our officials will perform strongly. We wish them all the best of luck for what promises to be a very exciting tournament.”
Included among Wilson’s colleagues for the tournament are 2023 winner of the David Shepherd Trophy for ICC Umpire-of-the-Year at the annual ICC Awards, Richard Illingworth, as well as former Sri Lanka spinner Kumar Dharmasena, former Australia pacer Paul Reiffel, and Chris Gaffaney of New Zealand, who were appointed for the final of the 2022 edition of the tournament.
The list of match referees for the tournament is completed by former Australia batsman David Boon, former New Zealand captain Jeff Crowe, former Sri Lanka batsman Ranjan Madugalle, former Zimbabwe batsman Andy Pycroft, and former India pacer Javagal Srinath.
