The Sunday News
Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWEAN cricket match official, Langton Rusere has been named as one of the umpires for the International Cricket Council Men’s Twenty20 World Cup, which gets underway on 17 October in the United Arab Emirates as well as Oman.
Rusere was announced by the ICC in a 20-strong group of match officials, which effectively means that, for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic, there will be neutral umpires for all matches of the 16-team tournament, running from 17 October to 14 November.
Three of the 16 umpires, Aleem Dar, Marais Erasmus and Rod Tucker will be officiating in their sixth ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
Oman and Papua New Guinea clash in the opening match of the tournament on 17 October at the Oman Cricket Academy, with the match to be officiated by Sri Lanka’s Kumar Dharmasena, who was one of the on-field umpires for the final of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019, alongside New Zealand’s Chris Gaffaney. Ranjan Madugalle will be the match referee, with Richard Kettleborough the TV umpire and Ahsan Raza the fourth official.
The rematch of the 2016 final between England and the West Indies, a Super 12 Group A clash will be overseen by Dar and Erasmus, with Australia’s David Boon the match referee and Chris Brown on TV duty.
In April this year, Rusere made history after becoming the first black African to stand in a Test match. The 36-year old Rusere stood alongside South Africa’s Marais Erasmus, as one of the on-field umpires for the first Test between Zimbabwe and Pakistan at Harare Sports Club.
Rusere stood in his first international match in July 2015, a T20I between Zimbabwe and India. Three months later, he made his one-day international debut when Zimbabwe hosted Afghanistan at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo.
He was one of the on-field officials at the Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh in 2016 and went on to officiate at the ICC Women’s World Cup 2017, staged in England.
In November 2018, Rusere umpired the Women’s World T20 final between Australia and England, in Antigua, having also stood in the semi-final between Australia and West Indies at the same venue.
Full list of match officials
Match Referees: David Boon, Jeff Crowe, Ranjan Madugalle, Javagal Srinath.
Umpires: Chris Brown, Aleem Dar, Kumar Dharmasena, Marais Erasmus, Chris Gaffaney, Michael Gough, Adrian Holdstock, Richard Illingworth, Richard Kettleborough, Nitin Menon, Ahsan Raza, Paul Reiffel, Langton Rusere, Rod Tucker, Joel Wilson, Paul Wilson.
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