FORMER Test umpires, Jamaican-born Steve Bucknor and New Zealander Billy Bowden are among 17 umpires from seven countries named to officiate in the 42 Group stage matches of this year’s Over 60s World Cup in Toronto, Canada, set for August 9-23.
The tournament will feature 14 sides from hosts Canada, Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa, Sri Lanka, United States, Wales, West Indies, Zimbabwe and, somewhat unusually given its an Over 60s’ event’, what’s titled an ‘Emerging XI’.
Umpires for the Group stage have been identified with those for the semi-finals and final to be named later. Nine Canadian umpires, with their number of Group stage games in brackets, are Sanjev Balachandran (2), Suresh Budhoo (5), Azad Hosein (4), Sush Mahalanobis (3), Victor Sebastian (1), Rohan Shah (2), Kantharatnam Shanthikumar (4) Danny Singh (1) and Rohan Weatherspoon (4) make up just on half of the panel.
The others are ‘Billy’ Bowden (7) and Evan Watkin (7) from New Zealand, and now New York-based Steve Bucknor (7) of the West Indies, all of whom have all stood at Test level, Darryl O’Sullivan (7) and Peter Tate (8) both from Australia, Bob Szpadt (7) and Martin Wale (7) both from Wales, and Saravanakumar Venkatesan of the United States (8).
Eleven of the 17 umpires in Budhoo, Hosein, O’Sullivan, Shah, Shanthikumar, Szpadt, Tate, Wale, Watkin, Venkatesan and Weatherspoon, have all been involved in a range of Over-40, 50, 60 and 70 World Cups over the last decade while Shah is a member of the International Cricket Council’s fourth-tier International Development Panel.
