The Chief Executive of the ICC, David Richards, commenting on the extension of the sponsorship by National Grid said, ``The sponsorship has produced measurable benefits in the conduct of Test and oneday cricket, notably a better, perception of umpires by the players. This has resulted in an increase in umpires morale, leading to enhanced performance, and a consequential improvement in player behaviour.
``The referee's role has been widened to ensure that international cricket is staged with uniformity in the best possible conditions. Continuation of the sponsorship means that we can now move ahead in this area with further improvements to the standard of umpiring,'' he said.
The ICC also is responsible for appointing a National Grid sponsored match referee for international matches.
``We are delighted with our partnership with the ICC in this sponsorship,'' commented Mr Trevor Seeley, the spokesman of the sponsors.
The panel of international umpires, which has been in operation since 1994, comprises 20 umpires picked from the nine Test playing countries. Four of them are from England and two each from other Test playing nations. Four from England because of the fact their first class umpires are full time professionals.
The panel of umpires named for 1997/98 during the ICC conference in June last has however only one umpire on the panel from Pakistan. Only Javed Akhtar has been named amongst the referees Javed Burki and Talat Ali are amongst the panel of referees.
The umpires and referees on the National Grid Panel for 1997/98 are:
AUSTRALIA: Darrell hair, Steve Randell (umpires), Peter Burge, Bobby Simpson, Barry Jarman (referees).
ENGLAND: Mervyn Kitchen, George Sharp, David Shepherd, Peter Willey (umpires), Raman Subba Row, Mike denness (referees).
INDIA: S. Venkataraghavan, V.K. Ramaswamy (umpires), Hanumant Singh, Mohinder Amarnath (refrees).
NEWZEALAND: Steve Dunne, Dough Cowie (umpires), John Reid, Graham Dowling (referees).
PAKISTAN: Javed Akhtar (umpire), Javed Burki, Talat Ali (referees).
SRI LANKA: B.C. Cooray, K.T. Francis (umpires), Ranjan Madugalle, Sidath Wettimuny (referees).
SOUTH AFRICA: Cyril Mitchley, Rudi Koertzen (umpires)s, Peter van der Merwe (referee).
WEST INDIES: Steve Bucknor, Lloyd Barker (umpires), Jackie Hendricks, Cammie Smith (referees).
ZIMBABWE: Ian Robinson, Russel Tiffin (umpires), Ahmed Ebrahim, Howard Gardiner (referees).