The International Cricket Council (ICC) has dismissed suggestions that Chris Broad has been removed as the match referee for the last two Tests of the Border-Gavaskar series due to the criticism he faced for his handling of the DRS controversy during the Bengaluru Test.

West Indies’ Richie Richardson is all set to take over from Broad for the remaining two Tests of the series. The English official has come under fire for his performance in the ongoing series. He has been severely criticised for not taking action against Australia skipper Steven Smith who was caught seeking input from the dressing room on a DRS referral. Not only that, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has also disagreed with his ‘poor’ rating of the Pune pitch. And removing Broad right after the second Test has raised a lot of eyebrows.

However, the ICC has said the decision was not sudden and Broad was supposed to officiate in the first two matches of the series only.

“There is no sudden change. Chris (Broad) was always supposed to referee in the first two Tests, while Richie Richardson was appointed for the last two Tests”, the ICC spokesperson said from Dubai.

Interestingly, the governing body of the game has also replaced the two on-field umpires for the Ranchi and Dharamshala Tests. The officials will be replaced by England’s Ian Gould and New Zealand’s Chris Gaffaney (New Zealand). On the other hand, English official Nigel Llong, who was a field umpire in the first two Tests, will officiate as a TV umpire in Ranchi.

The penultimate match of the series will begin on March 16 in Ranchi before the final match takes place in Dharamsala from March 25.