Sri Lanka's Asoka De Silva is among eight umpires who have been named to the International Cricket Council's Elite Umpires Panel.

The others appointed are Steve Bucknor (West Indies), Daryl Harper (Australia), Rudi Koertzen (South Africa), Dave Orchard (South Africa), David Shepherd (England), Russell Tiffin (Zimbabwe), and Srinivas Venkataraghavan (India).

The ICC took a decision last year that all Test matches would be officiated by two neutral umpires from the ICC's 8-member Panel of Umpires, and a Match Referee from the ICC's five International Referees. There will be one member of the Elite Panel standing with a home umpire for One-Day-Internationals.

Sri Lanka's Ranjan Madugalle has already been appointed as Chief Referee of the ICC's Panel of Match Referees.

Asoka De Silva officiated at the ICC Under 19 World Cup, which was held in New Zealand earlier this year. De Silva began officiating in international matches in 1998, and has so far participated in 13 Tests and 13 one-day-internationals. Four of the Test matches have been outside Sri Lanka, in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and India. He also officiated at the Asia Cup in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 1999.

A former Sri Lanka player, 45-year-old De Silva played 10 Tests and 27 one-day-internationals for Sri Lanka.

Commenting on the appointment of the game's leading umpires, ICC Chief Executive Officer Malcolm Speed said: "The constant, high pressure demands of international cricket means that umpiring at the highest level now has to be a full time profession, rather than a part time job. The eight men chosen to join the Elite Panel are all proven performers at Test level, who command the respect of the captains and players."

All Test match captains were asked to make nominations for the Panel on behalf of their teams. These contributions were given serious consideration in making the final choices from the current panel of 20 international umpires. The other major factor in choosing the Panel was the marks achieved by individual umpires over the past four years. These are the marks awarded by captains at the end of each Test match, which assess the umpire's performance against a range of criteria.

"Umpiring is one of the toughest tasks in international sport and this panel represents the best decision makers in the game. Their skills will help improve the overall standard of umpiring at international level and set an example for the next generation of top class umpires to follow," said Malcolm Speed. Final selection of the Panel was made jointly by Speed, together with Sunil Gavaskar, Chairman of the ICC's Cricket Committee-Playing.

On average, each member of the Panel will stand in 12 Test matches and 15 One-Day-Internationals, a potential on-field workload of 75 days per year. Umpires have agreed to two-year, full time contracts with the ICC and will meet together for the first time at the Referees and Umpires Workshop near Cape Town, South Africa from 21st to 24th March.

The first series to be played under the new system of Elite Panel umpires and Match Referees will be the triangular tournament in Sharjah starting on 8th April and involving Pakistan, Sri Lanka and New Zealand. This will be followed by the West Indies v India Test series in the Caribbean beginning on the 11th April.

© BCCSL