Zim’s Rusere among umpires announced for ICC Men’s T20 World Cup

Zimbabwe’s Langton Rusere has been named a 20-strong field of officials for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup later this month.

Langton Rusere PIC: Zimbabwe Cricket twitter

Rusere, who left the country last Wednesday, is part of a group that will for the first time since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, see neutral umpires for all matches of the 16-team tournament, being played in Muscat (Oman), Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Dubai (UAE) from 17 October to 14 November.

Rusere has seen his stock rise in world cricket and recently became the first black African to stand in a Test match.

The 16 umpires and four match referees finalised for the 45-match tournament include three umpires who will be officiating in their sixth ICC Men’s T20 World Cups – Aleem Dar, Marais Erasmus and Rod Tucker.

Sri Lanka’s Kumar Dharmasena, who was one of the on-field umpires for the final of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019, will be in the middle for the first match of the tournament, when Oman take on Papua New Guinea, alongside New Zealander Chris Gaffaney.

Another Sri Lankan, the vastly experienced Ranjan Madugalle, will be the match referee, with Richard Kettleborough the TV umpire and Ahsan Raza the fourth official.

Dar and Erasmus have been selected for the Super 12 clash between England and the West Indies, a rematch of the last ICC Men’s T20 World Cup final back in 2016, with Australian great David Boon the match referee for that encounter and Chris Brown, appearing in his first ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, on TV duty.

Officials have been named for the entirety of the first round and Super 12s, with the selections for the semi-finals and final of the tournament in the UAE and Oman to be named in due course.

Match Officials at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021

Match Referees: David Boon, Jeff Crowe, Ranjan Madugalle, Javagal Srinath.

Umpires: Chris Brown, Aleem Dar, Kumar Dharmasena, Marais Erasmus, Chris Gaffaney, Michael Gough, Adrian Holdstock, Richard Illingworth, Richard Kettleborough, Nitin Menon, Ahsan Raza, Paul Reiffel, Langton Rusere, Rod Tucker, Joel Wilson, Paul Wilson.