Cape Town - The International Cricket Council (ICC) has left their elite panel of the ICC umpires for the 2016/17 season unchanged, following the annual review and selection process.
The South African veteran umpire Marais Erasmus is one of the 12 names announced by the ICC to stand in international fixtures. 52-year-old Erasmus has stood in 62 One-Day Internationals (ODI), 35 Tests and 26 Twenty20 Internationals (T20I).
The decision was made by the ICC Umpires Selection Panel consisting of Chairman and ICC General Manager - Geoff Allardice, ICC Chief Match Referee Ranjan Madugalle, former England player and now a commentator - David Lloyd, and Srinivas Venkataraghavan, the former Indian captain and international umpire.
The elite panel of ICC Umpires for 2016/17 will be:
Aleem Dar, Kumar Dharmasena, Marais Erasmus, Chris Gaffaney, Ian Gould, Richard Illingworth, Richard Kettleborough, Nigel Llong, Bruce Oxenford, Sundaram Ravi, Paul Reiffel and Rod Tucker.
The game’s top umpires displayed their skills to an impressive degree in 2015/16 by achieving a correct-decision percentage of 95.6 percent in 220 matches across the three formats of Tests, ODI and T20I.
This is not only an improvement on 2014/15 figures of 94 percent, but is the highest since the introduction of the Decision Review System in 2008.
Confirming the elite panel for the 2016/17 season, ICC Umpires Selection Panel Chairman, Geoff Allardice, said:
“The elite panel has had an outstanding 12 months. Based on the individual performances of each umpire, as well as their ability to work together as a group, the selectors have decided that the same 12 umpires deserve to be rewarded with appointment to the elite panel for 2016/17.
“The selectors also noted the improved performances of some of the umpires on the international panel and expect them to be pushing for selection on the elite panel in years to come.”