ICC announces umpire and match referee appointments up to March 2006

The International Cricket Council (ICC) today announced the Emirates Elite Panel and Emirates International Panel match referee and umpire appointments for Tests and ODIs to late March 2006.

From the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC match referees, Jeff Crowe will officiate in the VB Series between Australia, South Africa and Sri Lanka starting at Telstra Dome in Melbourne on Friday 13 January.

If the finals go to a third and deciding match (which would be played in Brisbane on 14 February), that encounter would be Crowe's 50th as a referee.

The ICC-appointed umpires standing in the VB Series are Aleem Dar from the Emirates Elite Panel and Mark Benson from the Emirates International Panel. Dar will stand in eight matches (if the third final is required) and Benson will officiate in seven matches with the other standing umpire in each match appointed by Cricket Australia.

On the same day that the VB Series gets underway, the Pakistan - India Test series also begins. The Emirates Elite Panel Match Referee will be Ranjan Madugalle. The former Sri Lanka batsman was also in charge of the previous series between the two sides in Pakistan, in 2004.

The umpires for the series all come from the Emirates Elite Panel and all have previous Test experience in Pakistan. Rudi Koertzen will stand in the first two Tests, in Lahore (starting 13 January) and Faisalabad (starting on 21 January) and he will be joined by Darrell Hair for the first match and Simon Taufel for the second.

Taufel, whose 35th birthday coincides with the first day of the Faisalabad match, will be joined by Daryl Harper for the third and final Test, in Karachi starting on 29 January.

Emirates Elite Panel match referee Chris Broad will replace Madugalle for the five-match ODI series that follows the Tests in Pakistan, starting in Peshawar on 6 February.

Taufel will stay on for the first three matches of that series before Steve Bucknor, another Emirates Elite Panel umpire, takes over for the last two games, in Multan (16 February) and Karachi (19 February).

The West Indies tour of New Zealand takes place in February and March and involves five ODIs and three Tests. Emirates Elite Panel match referee Mike Procter will officiate in all matches.

The ICC-appointed umpire for the first four ODIs, starting in Wellington on 18 February, will be Rudi Koertzen, with Daryl Harper replacing him for the last match of the series, in Auckland on 4 March. These officials will be joined by umpires appointed by New Zealand Cricket.

Harper will then stand in the first two matches of the Test series that follows, alongside Koertzen in Auckland (starting 9 March) and Mark Benson in Wellington (starting 17 March). Benson will stand alongside Ian Howell, like him a member of the Emirates International Panel, in the final match of the series, in Napier, starting on 25 March.

On 19 February, Sri Lanka begins their ODI and Test commitments in Bangladesh. The Emirates Elite Panel match referee for the tour will be Clive Lloyd. The ICC-appointed umpire for three ODIs that begin on 19 February is Krishna Hariharan of the Emirates International Panel and he will stand alongside an official appointed by the Bangladesh Cricket Board.

Asad Rauf, another member of the Emirates International Panel, will stand in both Tests between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, in Chittagong (starting 26 February) and Dhaka (starting 6 March). He will be joined by Steve Bucknor in the first match and Hariharan in the second.

Chris Broad will act as match referee for Australia's five-ODI and three-Test tour of South Africa, reprising his role in the corresponding Test series which has just finished. Jeremy Lloyds from the Emirates International Panel will stand in the first four ODIs (starting at Centurion on 26 February) before Aleem Dar from the Emirates Elite Panel takes charge of the final match, in Johannesburg on 12 March.

Lloyds will stand in the first two Tests of the series, in Cape Town (starting on 16 March) and Port Elizabeth (starting on 24 March), alongside Dar and Steve Bucknor respectively, with Bucknor then staying on for the final match of the series at Centurion (starting on 31 March) where he will be joined by Tony Hill from the Emirates International Panel.

Ranjan Madugalle will act as match referee for the three-match Test series between India and England that begins in Nagpur on 1 March.

The umpires for that first Test will be Aleem Dar and Ian Howell. Simon Taufel and Darrell Hair will then stand in the second and third Tests of the series, in Mohali (starting on 9 March) and Mumbai (starting on 18 March).

The appointments for the ODI series between India and England, scheduled to start in Delhi on 28 March, together with other future series, will be made in due course.

Full details of the umpires and refereeing appointments can be viewed at the umpires and referees section of the ICC website.