Bowden and Cowie appointed to umpires' panel

Doug Cowie and Brent Bowden will be New Zealand's two automatic nominees to the International Cricket Council's international panel of umpires.

They will be part of a 20-strong group whose international duties will be largely confined to standing in One-Day Internationals, although some panel members could be called in to help the elite panel of eight when there are unavailabilities.

The international panel is due to be announced by the ICC in the next few days.

Cowie, 55, has stood in 22 Tests since making his international debut at Napier in 1994/95 when New Zealand played Sri Lanka. He has also stood in 63 ODIs.

Bowden, 39, has stood in three Tests and 19 ODIs.

Their reserve is Tony Hill, 50, and unless one of either Cowie or Bowden is overseas doing other games, his main duties will centre on TV umpire work.

There is also the possibility that international matches in New Zealand won't have an overseas umpire in them in which case the matches would have the top two standing together.

The two other members of the former international panel, Dave Quested and Evan Watkin drop back to the A panel where the prospects of covering international matches are largely confined to tour games involving international sides.

Meanwhile, Bowden and another Auckland umpire, Phil Jones, will be doing games at the Pacifica Cup being played in Samoa later this month and in early-June. Among other umpires from the region in attendance will be Bob Parry and Rod Tucker from Australia and Tony Cooper from Fiji.

New Zealand Cricket's umpiring manager Brian Aldridge will be the tournament umpires' manager.