Willey Earns International Panel Call (12 Jan 1996)

WILLEY EARNS INTERNATIONAL PANEL CALL

Former England batsman Peter Willey has been promoted to the National Grid international umpires panel. Willey and his former Northamptonshire colleague George Sharp replace Dickie Bird -- who announced his retirement as a Test umpire today -- and Nigel Plews and join Mervyn Kitchen and David Shepherd as England's representatives on the panel.

Plews comes off the five man panel for this season's two home Test series against India and Pakistan. He has been a Test umpire for eight years and will continue in first class and Texaco Trophy matches. Shepherd will be England's sole representative at the World Cup in Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka next month.

Willey's promotion has been rapid. He only became a first class umpire in 1993 after a playing career in which he played for Northamptonshire, Leicestershire and England. He played 26 Tests and scored 1184 runs, making two of his 44 career hundreds for England. Willey scorer of a career total of 24,361 runs, also taking 756 wickets. Sharp, who was a colleague of Willey's at Northamptonshire, claimed 655 dismissals as a wicketkeeper and joins the top band of umpires after four years on the first class list. Sharp (45) and Willey (46) are among the younger umpires on the first class circuit and their promotion comes on a day when the retiring Bird urged the Test and County Cricket Board to give younger men a chance in the Test arena.

Bird, Kitchen, Sharp, Shepherd and Willey will officiate in this summer's six Tests.

Summrized from a Reuter report