Emirates Invites Fans to Step Onto The Field as an Umpire

Emirates Invites Fans to Step Onto The Field as an Umpire

13 February 2015 – Emirates is inviting cricket fans to step into the shoes of the Emirates Elite Panels of Umpires this year at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, and experience making the tough calls.

Ahead of the first day of the tournament, well-known Emirates Elite Referee and former Australian Test player and selector David Boon visited Emirates’ Who Wants to be an Umpire? Testing Centre – where hundreds of fans in Christchurch for the opening match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka, tested their umpire skills.

Participants are questioned on a selection of 10 classic umpiring clips. There are in total 110 of these calls and, each time, the 10 shown are all chosen at random.

The Who Wants to be an Umpire? Testing Centre will visit a total of eight locations across Australia and New Zealand during the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 which is being played during February and March 2015. Apart from operating today and tomorrow at the Victoria Square fan zone in Christchurch, the testing centre will also be open for fans in Auckland at Takutai Square fan zone at the time of the crunch New Zealand-Australia match, taking place onFebruary 28.

The team of 25 match officials for the ICC Cricket World Cup includes 12 umpires from the Emirates Elite Panel of Umpires: Aleem Dar, Billy Bowden (New Zealand), Bruce Oxenford, Ian Gould, Kumar Dharmasena, Marais Erasmus, Nigel Llong, Paul Reiffel, Richard Illingworth, Richard Kettleborough, Rod Tucker and Steve Davis, as well as eight members of the Emirates International Panel of Umpires: Johan Cloete, Simon Fry, Chris Gaffaney (New Zealand), Michael Gough, Ranmore Martinesz, Ruchira Palliyaguru, S.Ravi and Joel Wilson.

The match referees are David Boon, Chris Broad, Jeff Crowe (New Zealand),Ranjan Madugalle and Roshan Mahanama.

Emirates is the Official Worldwide Partner to the International Cricket Council (ICC), which includes the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 and sponsorship of theEmirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires, the Emirates International Panel of Umpires and the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Match Referees.

Emirates flies four times daily from New Zealand to Dubai and beyond via Australia.

For more information on Emirates visit www.emirates.com/nz

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