No Madugalle, Boon, Broad as match referees for Cricket World Cup

Kumar Dharmasena, the only Sri Lankan in the ICC list of match officials for the 2023 Cricket World Cup

The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced the 20 match officials for the league round of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 in India, but missing from the line-up of match referees are senior hands Ranjan Madugalle, David Boon and Chris Broad, all of whom belong to the Elite Panel.

The match referees who will officiate at the 13th edition of the Cricket World are a quartet of former international cricketers, namely, Jeff Crowe, Andy Pycroft, Richie Richardson and Javagal Srinath.

Sri Lanka’s Kumar Dharmasena is among the 16 umpires named to officiate in the tournament. The umpires include all 12 of the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires and four members of the ICC Emerging Umpire Panel. They are: Chris Brown, Kumar Dharmasena, Marais Erasmus, Chris Gaffaney, Michael Gough, Adrian Holdstock, Richard Illingworth, Richard Kettleborough, Nitin Menon, Ahsan Raza, Paul Reiffel, Sharfuddoula Ibne Shaid, Rod Tucker, Alex Wharf, Joel Wilson and Paul Wilson.

The experienced list includes three of the four umpires who were appointed for the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019 final at Lord’s - Dharmasena, Erasmus and Tucker – with only Aleem Dar missing, who stepped down from the Elite Panel in March of this year.

Srinath will take charge as match referee for the tournament opener between last event’s finalists, England and New Zealand on 5 October in Ahmedabad. Menon and Dharmasena will be the standing umpires, with Paul Wilson as TV umpire and Saikat taking on fourth umpire duties.

The officials have been named for the entirety of the league segment, with the selections for the semi-finals and final of the tournament to be named in due course.