India's Ravi to officiate in World Cup opener

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India's S. Ravi will officiate in the World Cup opener between hosts New Zealand and Sri Lanka in Christchurch Feb 14.

While Marais Erasmus and Nigel Llong will be the on-field umpires, Ravi and Simon Fry will be the third and fourth umpires, respectively, with David Boon serving as the match referee, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced Friday.

On the same day in a day-night fixture in Melbourne, Australia will lock horns with England in a match which will be umpired by Aleem Dar and Kumar Dharmasena. Billy Bowden will act as the third umpire while Joel Wilson will perform the fourth umpire's duties. Jeff Crowe will be the match referee.

Apart from Boon and Crowe, Chris Broad, Ranjan Madugalle and Roshan Mahanama will share the match referees' responsibilities during the 44-day tournament in which 49 matches will be played from Feb 14 to March 29 in Australia and New Zealand. All five are members of the Elite Panel of ICC Match Referees.

All 12 members of the Elite Panel of ICC Umpires will be available for the World Cup. Apart from the four on-field umpires in action on the opening day, Bruce Oxenford, Ian Gould, Paul Reiffel, Richard Illingworth, Richard Kettleborough, Rod Tucker and Steve Davis will feature during the event.

Fry, Ravi and Wilson are members of the International Panel of ICC Umpires. They will be joined by Johan Cloete, Chris Gaffaney, Michael Gough, Ranmore Martinesz and Ruchira Palliyaguru.

Meanwhile, the ICC has also confirmed umpire appointments for the 14 warm-up matches. These matches will be played in Christchurch, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney.