Peter Manuel and T.H. Wijewardena are Sri Lanka's nominees to the new ICC International Panel of Umpires.

The International Panel will provide umpires for all One-Day-International (ODI) matches and also support the ICC's Elite Panel of eight full-time umpires at peak times in the Test match calendar and during major tournaments. Each Test-playing nation nominated two field umpires to the International Panel of Umpires. Sri Lanka's Asoka De Silva is already among the Elite Panel of Umpires.

Most ODIs will now be umpired by a combination of one Elite Panel and one International Panel umpire. Test matches are now umpired by Elite Panel umpires.

"The International Panel will play an important part in the new global structure of match officials. Umpiring in ODIs will give the opportunity for newer officials to gain experience at international level with members of the Elite Panel. It will also begin to prepare a generation of umpires skilled in the specialist demands of the TV umpire's role. Having already identified the best umpires to work for ICC on a full time basis, it is now equally important that the game starts to identify and develop the umpires who can be their eventual successors," commented David Richardson, the ICC's General Manager-Cricket.

Further encouragement to achieve this will be provided by giving International Panel members overseas umpiring assignments. This will allow them to gain experience of local conditions around the world and speed up the learning process in readiness for potential elevation to the Elite Panel.

Another initiative is the introduction of specialist Third Umpires (TV Umpires). These officials will not perform on-field duties but will be dedicated to the increasingly specialist role of the third umpire.

The International Panel of Umpires consists of the following nominations:

COUNTRY               FIELD UMPIRES               THIRD UMPIRE
Australia      Darrell Hair and Simon Taufel      Third Umpire Steve Davis
England        Peter Willey and Neil Mallender.   Third Umpire Jeremy Lloyds
India          Arani Jayaprakash and K Hariharan
New Zealand    Doug Cowie and Brent Bowden.       Third Umpire Tony Hill
Pakistan       Nadeem Ghouri and Aleem Dar
South Africa   Brian Jerling and Ian Howell.      Third Umpire Shahid Wadvalla
Sri Lanka      Peter Manuel and T H Wijewardena
West Indies    Billy Doctrove and Ed Nichols
Zimbabwe       Kevan Barbour and Ahmed Esat.      Third Umpire Ian Robinson

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