Match officials for ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2016 announced

Andy Pycroft of the Elite Panel of ICC Match Referees along with Devdas Govindjee and Graeme La Brooy from the ICC Regional Referees Panel will be the match referees for the tournament, while the on-field umpires will be drawn from the International Panel of ICC Umpires, and the ICC Associate and Affiliate Panel of International Umpires.

International panel umpires include Ahmad Shahab, Ahsan Raza, Anisur Rahman, Gregory Brathwaite, Chettithody Shamshuddin, Enamul Hoque Moni, Robert Bailey, Nigel Duguid, Adrian Holdstock, Mick Martell, Jeremiah Matibiri, Phillip Jones, Tim Robinson, Ruchira Palliyaguruge, Langton Rusere, Raveendra Wimalasiri and Sharfuddoula Ibne Shahid.

The only umpire from the Associate and Affiliate panel is Ian Ramage.

Chettithody Shamshuddin and Tim Robinson will be the on-field umpires for the tournament opener between host Bangladesh and defending champion South Africa to be played at the Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium (ZACS) in Chittagong on Wednesday, 27 January. Phillip Jones will be the TV umpires, while Graeme La Brooy will be the match referee.

On the same day at the MA Aziz Stadium in Chittagong, England will take on Fiji. The on-field umpires for this match will be Ahsan Raza and Mick Martell with Devdas Govindjee as the match referee.

Adrian Griffith, ICC’s Senior Manager – Umpires and Referee, said: “The panel for this tournament represents an outstanding cross-section of international officials who are among the most experienced currently standing in international cricket. The players will benefit from the calibre of the match officials, with the game’s best young talent exposed to umpiring and refereeing of a high international standard.”

For all matches, two on-field umpires and a reserve official will be appointed, while for televised matches a TV umpire will also form part of the playing control team. In some of the first round matches, the fourth official will be a local appointment.

The 11th edition of the tournament will be held across eight venues in four Bangladesh cities from 27 January to 14 February 2016, and will feature nine Test playing countries as well as seven Associate and Affiliate Members, namely Afghanistan, Canada, Fiji, Ireland, Namibia, Nepal and Scotland.

The warm-up matches will be played from 22 to 25 January.

The tournament will open with the match between defending champion South Africa and host- nation Bangladesh at the Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium (ZACS) in Chittagong and will culminate with the final at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur.

All matches will be day fixtures and will start at 0900 local time. The Super League semi-finals and final will have reserve days.

For the first time in the history of this competition, ICC will produce live broadcast coverage of an unprecedented 20 matches. The matches which will be shown around the world by ICC broadcast partner, Star Sports and its licensees, include four from Chittagong, nine from Mirpur and seven from Fatullah. In the 2014 event in the UAE, Star Sports and its licensees had broadcast 11 matches, while 10 matches each were televised from the 2008, 2010 and 2012 events in Malaysia, New Zealand and Australia respectively. More details on broadcast coverage of the event will be announced in due course.