DUBAI – Trinida­di­an Joel Wil­son will be the on­ly West In­di­an mem­ber of the pan­el of 16 um­pires and four match ref­er­ees that will over­see match­es in the ICC Men’s Twen­ty20 World Cup from Oc­to­ber 17 to No­vem­ber 14 in the Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates and Oman.

The In­ter­na­tion­al Crick­et Coun­cil (ICC), the sport’s world gov­ern­ing body, an­nounced on Thurs­day the match of­fi­cials’ ap­point­ments for the qual­i­fy­ing round of match­es and the group stage of the glob­al show­piece.

“We are de­light­ed to be able to call on some of the world’s top of­fi­cials for the T20 World Cup with a group of 16 um­pires and four match ref­er­ees,” ICC se­nior man­ag­er for um­pires and ref­er­ees Adri­an Grif­fith said.

The ICC said the ap­point­ment of the um­pires and ref­er­ees meant that for the first time since the be­gin­ning of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, there will be neu­tral um­pires for all match­es.

“Our aim is al­ways to ap­point the best pos­si­ble of­fi­cials, and we have al­so been able to ap­point neu­tral um­pires and ref­er­ees in all match­es,” Grif­fith, a for­mer Bar­ba­dos and West In­dies open­er, said. “We wish them all the very best, and we are con­fi­dent they will en­sure the smooth con­duct of match­es.”

Wil­son, 54, is cur­rent­ly the on­ly West In­di­an on the 11-mem­ber ICC elite pan­el of um­pires, ar­guably the best um­pires in the sport from around the world, and he has of­fi­ci­at­ed in 36 Tests, 101 One-day In­ter­na­tion­als and 42 Twen­ty20 In­ter­na­tion­als.

Fel­low West In­di­an um­pires, Gre­go­ry Brath­waite, Nigel Duguid, Leslie Reifer Jr and Patrick Gus­tard, all mem­bers of the sec­ond tier ICC pan­el of in­ter­na­tion­als um­pires, were over­looked.

For­mer West In­dies cap­tain, Sir Richie Richard­son, a mem­ber of the ICC elite pan­el of match ref­er­ees, will al­so not be part of the tour­na­ment.

Wil­son is card­ed to be part of the of­fi­ci­at­ing team in 17 match­es dur­ing the tour­na­ment, com­pris­ing sev­en warm-up match­es, two qual­i­fy­ing match­es and eight group match­es.

Of those, he will be on the field for three warm-ups, one qual­i­fi­er and four group match­es, he will be the video um­pire in two warm-ups and three group match­es, and he will be the fourth um­pire in two warm-ups, one qual­i­fi­er and one group match.

The um­pires – all 11 elite um­pires and five in­ter­na­tion­al um­pires – and match ref­er­ees fi­nalised for the 45-match tour­na­ment al­so in­clude three um­pires who will be of­fi­ci­at­ing in their sixth T20 World Cups – Pak­istani Aleem Dar, Marais Eras­mus of South Africa and Aus­tralian Rod Tuck­er.

Dar and Eras­mus have been se­lect­ed for the open­ing group match for West In­dies against Eng­land, a re­match of the last T20 World Cup fi­nal back five years ago, with for­mer Aus­tralia bats­man David Boon the match ref­er­ee for that en­counter and New Zealan­der Chris Brown, ap­pear­ing in his first T20 World Cup, on TV du­ty.

Of­fi­cials have been named for all match­es in the qual­i­fy­ing round and group stage, with the se­lec­tions for the se­mi-fi­nals and fi­nal of the tour­na­ment to be named in due course.

CMC