India vs Australia 2017: Richie Richardson To Replace Chris Broad For Last Two Tests
Mar 15, 2017 at 3:48 PM
The former West Indies player Richie Richardson will take over the match referee duties for the last two games of the Test series between India and Australia. He will replace Chris Broad, who officiated in the first two games of the series.
Chris Broad was under scanner after he was criticised by legendary Sunil Gavaskar for not taking any action against Australian captain Steve Smith in the DRS row. Along with that, Broad was in the dock again when he had a talk with media regarding the DRS row. As per the rules, a match referee cannot openly give public statements regarding the game.
It was Broad only who rated Pune pitch as poor. So him being replaced for the last two Tests do not comes as a surprise as he have had strings of controversies on this tour but ICC has defended this rejig,
“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.
Not only match referees, there will be also new two on-field umpires. It will be the pair of Ian Gould and Chris Gaffaney who will be performing the on-field umpiring duties with Nigel Llong, the on-field umpire of previous two games, performing the third umpire duties.
The third and the penultimate Test match of the series will be played in Ranchi from March 16. The JSCA Stadium will be making its debut and will become 26th Test venue in India to host a Test match.