KARACHI: Former West Indies captain Richie Richardson has been nominated by the International Cricket Council (ICC) to oversee the upcoming England-Pakistan Test series starting on July 14 at Lord’s.

Richardson, 54, has so far officiated in just 15 T20 Internationals and three ODIs since February this year after replacing ex-Sri Lanka batsman Roshan Mahanama, who stood down from the ICC elite panel of match referees after 10 years in the job.

Richardson, who played alongside the legendary West Indies batting maestro and fellow Antiguan Viv Richards for close to eight years, had a fine playing career from 1983 until 1996 when Australia edged the West Indies in a pulsating World Cup semi-final at Mohali by five runs with skipper Richardson stranded high and dry on 49 in his 224th and last ODI appearance.

Richardson, one of the finest batsmen of his time, also represented the West Indies in 86 Tests and 224 ODIs, while leading the region in 24 Tests (11 wins and six defeats) and 87 ODIs (winning 46 and losing 36).

In January 2011, Richardson was appointed team manager of the West Indies and served in that role until the end of the Test tour of Australia earlier this year.

According to ICC sources, the game’s governing body also unveiled the panel of umpires for the four-match rubber. Joel Wilson, the West Indies umpire currently serving on the ICC’s international panel, will feature in each of the four Tests with two nominations as the on-field official and the remaining two as TV umpire.

The 49-year-old from Trinidad and Tobago has stood in just one Test match when Bangladesh hosted South Africa in the rain-disrupted game at Chittagong in July last year. Wilson, who has so far officiated as on-field official in 30 ODIs and 17 T20 Internationals, was the only overseas umpire during the inaugural edition of the Pakistan Super League in the UAE last February and was involved in making a number of atrocious decisions.

Wilson’s on-field partner during the coming Lord’s Test will be Sri Lanka former all-rounder Kumar Dharmasena, who is a member of the ICC elite panel. Australia’s Rod Tucker, another elite panel man, will officiate as the TV umpire. Dharmasena and Tucker will perform the on-field duties in the second Test at Old Trafford in Manchester, starting on July 22, with Wilson switching over to monitor TV replays before swapping duty positions with Dharmasena for the next Test at Edgbaston in Birmingham from Aug 3 with Bruce Oxenford of Australia partnering the West Indian on the field.

The fourth and final Test at The Oval from Aug 11 sees South Africa’s Marais Erasmus — who is another member of the ICC elite panel of umpires — sharing on-field duties with Oxenford with Wilson acting as the third man.

The ICC will name its umpires for the subsequent ODI series between England and Pakistan later. The five ODI fixtures are slated for Southampton (Aug 24), Lord’s (Aug 27), Trent Bridge (Aug 30), Headingley (Sept 1) and Cardiff (Sept 4).

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2016