Match officials announced for ICC Women's World Cup 2009
The ICC today announced the match officials for the upcoming ICC Women’s World Cup 2009 in Australia, which runs from 7 to 22 March.
Brian Aldridge and David Jukes will be the match referees for the 16-day tournament while the on-field umpires will be split between appointments from the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires, the Emirates International Panel of ICC Umpires, the ICC Associate and Affiliate International Umpires’ Panel, East Asia-Pacific Regional Panel and domestic panel umpires from Australia and New Zealand.
Steve Davis will represent the elite panel while those from other panels are Tony Hill and Brian Jerling (both from the international panel), Shahul Hameed and Sarika Prasaad (both from the Associate and Affiliate panel), Lakani Oala and Neil Harrison (both from the East Asia-Pacific panel), Jeff Brookes, Andrew Craig, Tony Ward, Mick Martell (all members of Australia National Panel) and Gerard Abood (an Australian first-class umpire).
The 13-member umpires’ panel also includes female umpire Kathy Cross who is a member of New Zealand’s Regional Panel. Cross also stood in two matches of the quadrangular World Series of Women’s Cricket tournament staged in New Zealand from 26 January to 8 February 2003. Australia won the tournament when it defeated New Zealand in the final by 109 runs while India finished third and England fourth.
“The panel consists of many up-and-coming umpires who are being given a wonderful opportunity to officiate and gain experience in a World Cup event, alongside Steve Davis of the Elite Panel and Tony Hill and Brian Jerling of the international panel,” said Vince van der Bijl, ICC Umpires’ and Referees’ Manager.
“The other exciting news is that Kathy Cross will become the first woman to officiate in a World Cup event, which is yet another huge boost to women’s cricket.
“The panel has been chosen predominantly from the Australia-New Zealand Pacific Region. The ICC Umpires’ Manager, Doug Cowie has appointed Bob Stratford, the ICC Regional Umpire Performance Manager, who with Davis, Hill and Jerling will also mentor and coach the exciting up and coming talent, during the tournament,” he said.
Individual match appointments will be made in due course.
The tournament in Australia will see the world’s top eight teams – holders Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and the West Indies – compete at six venues across New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory in 16 days from 7 to 22 March.
The format of the event involves the teams being divided into two groups. Australia, New Zealand, the West Indies and South Africa are in Group A while India, England, Sri Lanka and Pakistan are in Group B.
The top three sides in each group will go forward to the Super Six stage where each side then plays the teams which have qualified from the other group. The top two sides from the Super Six go forward to the final.
The top four teams will qualify for the ICC Women’s World Cup 2013 to be staged in India while the fifth and sixth-place teams will go into the 10-team ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier 2011 where they will be joined by eight other sides (two each from Africa and Europe and one each from the Americas and East Asia-Pacific Region) which will qualify from their regional qualifying tournaments.
ESPN STAR Sports, the ICC’s broadcast partner, will cover all seven matches that will take place at North Sydney Oval, including the final. This will ensure that the event will be the most widely viewed to date, with the coverage to be aired in more than 100 countries.
Match Referees: Brian Aldridge and David Jukes.
Umpires: Tony Hill, Lakani Oala, Shahul Hameed, Kathy Cross, Neil Harrison, Sarika Prasaad, Brian Jerling, Steve Davis, Jeff Brookes, Andrew Craig, Tony Ward, Mick Martell, Gerard Abood.
The event logo and more details on ICC Women’s World Cup 2009 can be found at:
www.iccevents.yahoo.com.
High-resolution images from selected matches will be available for free download athttp://iccfiles.sportcentric.org/. Editors need to click on the folder ICC WWW 09 and then the go to the relevant match folder to download images.