ICC announces umpires and referees for series up to Feb 2005

The International Cricket Council today announced the umpires and referees for the following series:

Bangladesh v New Zealand - 2 Tests and 3 ODIs
Pakistan v Sri Lanka - 2 Tests
Jubilee Match, India v Pakistan - 1 ODI
Australia v New Zealand - 2 Tests and 3 ODIs
India v South Africa - 2 Tests
Zimbabwe v England - 5 ODIs
Bangladesh v India - 2 Tests and 3 ODIs
South Africa v England - 5 Tests and 7 ODIs
Australia v Pakistan - 3 Tests
New Zealand v Sri Lanka - 2 Tests and 5 ODIs
Bangladesh v Zimbabwe - 2 Tests and 5 ODIs
VB Series, Australia, Pakistan and West Indies - 12 ODIs

All of the matches will be refereed by members of the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Referees. The Test matches between Bangladesh and New Zealand will be Australian Alan Hurst's first series since becoming a member of this Emirates Elite Panel.

The Bangladesh v New Zealand series will also see English umpire Mark Benson officiate in his first Test match. Benson is a member of the support tier of officials nominated by their local boards, the Emirates International Panel of ICC Umpires.

The other Emirates International Panel umpires to have been awarded Test match appointments during this period include fellow Englishman Jeremy Lloyds, who will stand in the first Test between Bangladesh and India.

Asad Rauf and Nadeem Ghauri (both from Pakistan) and Tyrone Wijewardena and Gamini Silva (both from Sri Lanka) will all officiate in the Test series between Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.

The first Test will be Rauf's first Test match on field, while Ghouri will make his Test debut in the second Test.

All of the other Test match appointments will be fulfilled by the eight members of the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires.

The ICC appoints one umpire for all One-Day International matches to stand with a locally appointed member of the Emirates International Panel.

For full details of the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires and Referees officiating on all of these series click here