(REUTERS) – England’s Nigel Llong has been selected to join the International Cricket Council’s elite panel of umpires, the ICC said yesterday. Llong, who played 68 first-class matches for county side Kent as a batsman and off-spin bowler between 1990 and 1998, replaces the recently-retired Billy Doctrove in the 12-man group of the game’s leading officials.
The 43-year-old has umpired in 12 Tests, 55 One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and 16 Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is); and had been a member of the ICC’s international panel of umpires since 2002.
Llong and the other 11 members of the elite panel, along with Australia’s Bruce Oxenford, have all been chosen to officiate in the ICC World Twenty20 tournament in Sri Lanka in September and October, the ICC release added.
Oxenford, 52, a member of the ICC’s international panel of umpires, has officiated in eight Tests, 34 ODIs and 11 T20Is.
Sri Lanka’s Ranjan Madugalle and Jeff Crowe from New Zealand will serve as match referees for the men’s tournament in Sri Lanka, which involves the top 12 international teams, with Graeme Labrooy of Sri Lanka overseeing the women’s tournament between the eight leading sides.
The appointments were made by the ICC’s umpiring committee, made up of its head of cricket operations and Chief Executive-elect David Richardson, Madugalle, David Lloyd – the ex-England batsman, coach, first-class umpire and now television commentator – and India’s Srinivas Venkataraghavan, the former India captain and elite panel umpire.
The members of the 12-man elite panel are Billy Bowden, Aleem Dar, Steve Davis, Kumar Dharmasena, Marais Erasmus, Ian Gould, Tony Hill, Richard Kettleborough, Nigel Llong, Asad Rauf, Simon Taufel and Rod Tucker.
The ICC World Twenty20 will take place from September 18 to October. 7.