Kumar Dharmasena And Nitin Menon will be on-field umpires in the ICC World Cup 2023 tournament opening match between England and New Zealand which will be played on October 5 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
It will be a rematch of the memorable final between these two teams from four years ago, which England won on the basis of the boundary count rule after the Super Over was tied between the two sides.
Kumar Dharmasena And Nitin Menon will be the stand-in umpires for the game, while Shahid Saikat, will be the fourth umpire, and TV umpire will be Paul Wilson. The match referee will be Javagal Srinath.
Menon will be taking the field in his first ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup game, while Dharmasena created history in 2015 by becoming the first individual to play and officiate in an ICC Men’s 50-over Cricket World Cup final. Shahid will be the competition’s first umpire from Bangladesh.
Match Officials Announced For The ICC World Cup 2023
They are all members of the group of 20 officials named by the International Cricket Council (ICC) to oversee World Cup matches. This group consists of 16 match officials and 4 match referees, including 12 officials from the Emirates ICC Elite Panel of Umpires.
Six of those 16 umpires are taking the stage for the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup for the first time, while three return after officiating in previous finals.
Only Shahid and Alex Wharf are among the 14 returning umpires from the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 who did not officiate in Australia.
Marais Erasmus and Richard Kettleborough also return, having taken charge of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup finals in the past, in 2019 and 2015, respectively. Erasmus and Dharmasena were the men in the middle for both the 2019 final at Lord’s and the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 final.
The four-match referees are all former international players – Jeff Crowe, Andy Pycroft, Richie Richardson and Javagal Srinath.
Match Officials for ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023:
Umpires: Chris Brown (New Zealand), Kumar Dharmasena (Sri Lanka), Marais Erasmus (South Africa), Christopher Gaffaney (New Zealand), Michael Gough (England), Adrian Holdstock (South Africa), Richard Illingworth (England), Richard Kettleborough (England), Nitin Menon (India), Ahsan Raza (Pakistan), Paul Reiffel (Australia), Sharfuddoula Ibne Shahid (Bangladesh), Rodney Tucker (Australia), Alex Wharf (England), Joel Wilson (West Indies) and Paul Wilson (Australia).
Match Referees: Jeff Crowe (New Zealand), Andy Pycroft (Zimbabwe), Richie Richardson (West Indies) and Javagal Srinath (India).