HARARE, Zim­bab­we– The Emi­rates In­ter­na­tion­al Crick­et Coun­cil (ICC) In­ter­na­tion­al Pan­el of Um­pires and Ref­er­ees has an­nounced the of­fi­cials for the high­ly an­tic­i­pat­ed se­mi-fi­nals of the ICC Un­der-19 Men’s Crick­et World Cup 2026, with Trinidad and To­ba­go’s Za­hid Bas­sarath earn­ing a promi­nent as­sign­ment.

Bas­sarath will take the field as an on-field um­pire for the block­buster first se­mi-fi­nal be­tween un­beat­en ri­vals Aus­tralia and Eng­land on Feb­ru­ary 3.

He will be joined by In­dia’s Viren­der Shar­ma. This ap­point­ment comes fresh from Bas­sarath of­fi­ci­at­ing Eng­land’s com­mand­ing vic­to­ry over New Zealand in the Su­per Six stage, while Shar­ma over­saw Aus­tralia’s ear­li­er wins against Japan and Sri Lan­ka.

The sup­port team for this high-stakes clash will see Luba­ba­lo Gcuma as the third um­pire, Prageeth Ram­buk­wella as the fourth um­pire, and Prakash Bhatt serv­ing as the match ref­er­ee.

The of­fi­ci­at­ing teams for the sec­ond se­mi-fi­nal in Harare on Feb­ru­ary 4th, where In­dia will face Afghanistan, have al­so been con­firmed.

The on-field du­ties will be han­dled by Shaun Haig and Rus­sell War­ren. Haig was in charge of Afghanistan’s crit­i­cal group stage vic­to­ries over South Africa and the West In­dies, while War­ren stood dur­ing In­dia’s suc­cess­es against the USA and Bangladesh.

They will be sup­port­ed by third um­pire Shawn Craig, fourth um­pire Ma­sudur Mukul, and match ref­er­ee Graeme La Brooy.

CMC