Hurst, Broad to officiate Lanka tour

Dubai:

The International Cricket Council on Wednesday appointed Allan Hurst and Chris Broad as match referees for India's Test and one-day series against Sri Lanka respectively.

Mark Benson of England and West Indian Billy Doctrove will officiate in the opening Test at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo from July 23-27.

Doctrove will then be joined by South African Rudi Koertzen for the second Test in Galle from July 31 and the series will be wrapped up by Benson and Koertzen, who will stand in the third and final Test at Colombo's Premadasa Stadium from August 8.

Meanwhile, the entire ODI series will be officiated by Doctrove and a local umpire.

The India-Sri Lanka series will also witness the trial of the umpire decision review system with Koertzen sitting as the TV umpire in the first Test while Benson and Doctrove will fill the role in the second and third Tests respectively.

As per the system both the fielding and batting sides will be allowed three unsuccessful appeals to the umpire per innings to change a decision if it is perceived to have been incorrect.

These appeals can be made only by the batsman in receipt of the umpire's original decision or the captain of the fielding side, in both cases by the player making a 'T' sign with both forearms at shoulder height.

The on-field umpire will then consult with the TV umpire, who will review available television coverage of the incident before relaying fact-based information back to his colleagues.

The on-field umpire will then deliver the TV umpire's decision either by raising his finger to indicate 'out' or by crossing his hands in a horizontal manner side to side in front and above his waist three times to indicate 'not out'.