Dubai, June 11: The International Cricket Council (ICC) today announced the umpires’ panel for the 2012-13 season and the upcoming ICC World Twenty20 Sri Lanka 2012, which takes place from 18 September to 7 October. Nigel Llong has been selected to join the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires for the 2012-13 season, starting 1 July 2012. The 43-year-old Englishman replaces Billy Doctrove who announced his retirement from the elite panel last week. Llong, born on 11 February 1969 in Ashford, Kent, has already umpired in 12 Tests, 55 ODIs and 16 T20Is. He was appointed to the ICC Emirates Panel of International Umpires in 2002. The 43-year-old made his international umpiring debut in the second-ever T20I, played between England and Australia at Southampton on 13 June 2005. The following summer in a match between England and Sri Lanka at Lord’s, Llong stood in his first ODI. His first Test was two years later in Dunedin in the match between New Zealand and Bangladesh. During his playing days as a left-handed batsman and an off-spinner for Kent from 1990-1998, Llong played in 68 first-class matches in which he scored 3,024 runs and took 35 wickets. His best season was 1993 in which he scored 943 runs in 18 matches at an average of 42.86. Meanwhile, the 12 Emirates Elite Panelists – 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 – will be joined for the ICC World Twenty20 Sri Lanka 2012 by Bruce Oxenford of the Emirates International Panel of ICC Umpires. The 52-year-old Oxenford has so far officiated in eight Tests, 34 ODIs and 11 T20Is. He was one of the six umpires who had been named to stand alongside the elite panelists in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 after being identified as an emerging and talented match official. The match referees for the event will be: Ranjan Madugalle and Jeff Crowe (both from the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Match Referees), while Graeme La Brooy will be the match referee to the women’s part of the event. Umpire and match referee appointments for the ICC World Twenty20 Sri Lanka 2012 will be announced closer to the tournament. The committee, which finalised the umpires’ panels for the 2012-13 season and the ICC World Twenty20 Sri Lanka 2012, consisted of David Richardson (ICC General Manager – Cricket), Ranjan Madugalle (ICC Chief Match Referee), David Lloyd (former player, coach, umpire and now television commentator) and Srinivas Venkataraghavan

Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires for 2012-13 (in alphabetical order, as of 12 June 2012):