Nikita Miller replaces Sunil Narine in West Indies team
Dubai: The ICC has approved Nikita Miller as a replacement for spinner Sunil Narine in the West Indies’ squad for the cricket World Cup, starting February 14. Narine withdrew from the World Cup earlier this week, saying he required more time to be able to bowl confidently with his new action. The 32-year-old Miller has represented the West Indies in 45 One-Day Internationals and has taken 40 wickets with his left-arm spin. His last ODI was against England in March 2014. The Event Technical Committee of the ICC Cricket World Cup approved the replacement. “The replacement was approved as an exceptional circumstance,” an ICC release said. The Event Technical Committee of the ICC Cricket World Cup consists of Geoff Allardice (ICC General Manager - Cricket, Chairman), Campbell Jamieson (ICC General Manager - Commercial), John Harnden (Chief Executive, CWC 2015 lOC), Gavin larsen (Cricket Operations Manager, New Zealand), Russel Arnold and Sanjay Manjrekar (independent nominees). The West Indies in in Pool B with defending champion India, Ireland, former winner Pakistan, African rivals South Africa and Zimbabwe, and qualifier United Arab Emirates (UAE).
ICC announce umpires and referees for World Cup
Dubai: Marais Erasmus and Nigel llong will be the on-field umpires for the World Cup opener between New Zealand and Sri lanka on February 14 as ICC on Friday announced the umpire and match referees for the pool stage of the mega cricket event. S Ravi and Simon Fry will be the third and fourth umpires, respectively, while David Boon will be the match referee for the first match to be held in Christchurch. On the same day in a day/night fixture in Melbourne, Australia will lock horns with England in a match which will be umpired by Aleem Dar and Kumar Dharmasena. Billy Bowden will act as the third umpire, while Joel Wilson will perform the fourth umpire’s duties. Jeff Crowe will be the match referee. Apart from Boon and Crowe, Chris Broad, Ranjan Madugalle and Roshan Mahanama will share the match referees’ responsibilities during the 44-day tournament in which 49 matches will be played. All the five are members of the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Match Referees. Apart from the four on-field umpires in action on the opening day, Bruce Oxenford, Ian Gould, Paul Reiffel, Richard Illingworth, Richard Kettleborough, Rod Tucker and Steve Davis will feature during the event. Fry, Ravi and Wilson are members of the Emirates International Panel of ICC Umpires. They will be joined by Johan Cloete, Chris Gaffaney, Michael Gough, Ranmore Martinesz and Ruchira Palliyaguru during ICC’s pinnacle event.