Women umpires to break new ground for SA Cricket

Cape Town - Cricket South Africa (CSA) have announced the appointments of Lauren Agenbag to the Reserve List Umpires Panel and Shandre Fritz to the the Match Referees Panel for the 2019/20 season.

CSA have broken new ground in its commitment to gender equality at all levels and areas of the game.

Senior umpires Marais Erasmus (ICC Elite Panel), Shaun George (ICC Reserve Test/ODI Panel) and Adrian Holdstock, Bongani Jele and Allahudien Paleker (ICC International Panel), currently serve on the various International Cricket Council (ICC) Panels.

Fritz represented the Proteas women in 59 ODIs and 26 T20Is from 2003-2014. Fritz became the first South African to score a century in T20 cricket against the Netherlands in Potchefstroom.

In 2012, she was named South African Women's Cricketer of the Year award.

"Congratulations to all our umpires on their deserved appointments for the approaching season and particularly to Lauren and Shandre," commented Corrie van Zyl, CSA Acting Director of Cricket. "Umpires are central to the game of cricket and we are fortunate to have an extremely competent group of match officials.

"We will continue to create opportunities for our umpires to develop through our exchange programmes with Australia, India and New Zealand.

"Lauren has already umpired at Women's Senior International level in T20 matches and we have identified her as one of the exciting prospects to come through our Talent Identification Programme (TAP).

"I would also like to pay tribute and extend our thanks to Abdulatief (Tiefie) Barnes who is retiring from our Match Referees Panel after a long and outstanding career both as player and match official," concluded Van Zyl.

CSA First-Class Panel: Murray Brown, Johan Cloete, Siphelele Gasa, Lubabalo Gcuma, Shaun George, Stephen Harris, Ryan Hendricks, Adrian Holdstock, Clifford Isaacs, Arno Jacobs, Bongani Jele, Tom Mokorosi, Allahudien Paleker, Dennis Smith, Abdoellaah Steenkamp, Philip Vosloo, Brad White

CSA Reserve List Panel: Rudi Birkenstock, Dawood Arkeldien, Gawie Botha, Hassen Dawood, Jannie Erasmus, Mazizi Gampu, Gladman Gaseba, Marlon Jansen, Kevin Lawrence, Sinethemba Mjekula, Bongani Ntshebe, Stephen Rex, Jurie Sadler, Abongile Sodumo, Godwin von Willingh, Lauren Agenbag

CSA Match Referees: Devdas Govindjee, Barry Lambson, Zama Ndamane, Laurance Matroos, Gerrie Pienaar, Shaid Wadvalla, Shandre Fritz

Compiled by Lynn Butler