February 07, 2008	Thursday	Muharram 28, 1429

DUBAI, Feb 6: The International Cricket Council (ICC) is set to appoint a four-member selection panel for the appointment of umpires, it was learnt here. According to the highly placed sources in the ICC, the panel members will be named before March this year.

The new panel will be responsible for the nomination of the Elite Panel Umpires List. The panel will also hike the present number of umpires from ten to twelve.

Till now the appointment of the Elite Panel Umpires was governed by the ICC management. However, perhaps to avoid controversies surrounding them, the ICC may not be wishing to have repeats of Darrell Hair and Steve Bucknor incidents in future.

The future of these two controversial umpires whose contracts expire in March this year also will rest with the new panel.

It was not known whether the postings of the new Elite Panel umpires and referees for the different series would be named by the new selectors or would be done by Doug Cowie, the 61-year-old ICC manager for umpires.—Agencies