Asoka de Silva dropped from crucial matches

ESPNcricinfo staff

March 16, 2011
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   [image: Simon Taufel looks on from the outfield, South Africa v Sri
Lanka, Super Eights, Guyana, March 28, 2007]
  Asoka de Silva's loss is Simon Taufel's gain © Getty Images
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Asoka de Silva, whose decision-making has come in for intense criticism
during the World Cup, will not officiate in a couple of key group games that
he was originally marked for. de Silva is the only umpire among the 18
deployed whose success percentage in reviewed decisions is less than 50%.

He was supposed to have been one of the on-field umpires for Thursday's
crucial match between England and West Indies, and he was also the third
umpire for the India-West Indies game. Instead, according to ICC's revised
schedule, he will be the fourth umpire in the Ireland-Netherlands match on
Friday, and will be an on-field umpire in the Zimbabwe-Kenya game on Sunday.
Both those games are inconsequential, with all four teams already out of the
World Cup.

The ICC has said the move was necessitated by the fact that they did not
want their best umpires, like Taufel, standing in matches of lesser
importance. "It was part of the re-organising for the last part of the group
stage, to ensure the in-form umpires are on the field and in the third
umpire's room for these crucial matches," Dave Richardson, the ICC general
manager said.

de Silva's place in Thursday's match between England and West Indies will be
taken by Bruce Oxenford - originally listed as the fourth umpire in that
game - while Simon Taufel will be the third umpire. For the India-West
Indies match, Taufel and Steve Davies will be the on-field umpires, with
Oxenford the third umpire.

de Silva has had a poor World Cup so far, with several of his decisions
being overturned by the Decision Review System: of the seven times his
decisions have been challenged, only three times has his original call
stood. One of those three instances was the lbw decision against Ireland's
Gary Wilson in the match against West
Indies<http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/433584.html>.
Wilson challenged the call, and replays clearly showed the ball had struck
his pad outside the line of off when he was attempting a shot, but de Silva
refused to change his decision, a move that was strongly
criticised<http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc_cricket_worldcup2011/content/story/505685.html>by
Ireland captain William Porterfield. Had that decision been changed,
as
it should have been, de Silva's score in reviewed decisions would have been
two correct calls out of seven.

*The changes in the umpiring schedule*

*England v West Indies*
Originally - Asoka de Silva and Steve Davis, Shahvir Tarapore (third), Bruce
Oxenford (fourth)
Revised - Bruce Oxenford and Steve Davis, Simon Taufel (third), Shahvir
Tarapore (fourth)

*Ireland v Netherlands*
Originally - Simon Taufel and Ian Gould, Kumar Dharmasena (third), Billy
Doctrove (fourth)
Revised - Billy Doctrove and Ian Gould, Kumar Dharmasena (third), Asoka de
Silva (fourth)

*Australia v Pakistan*
Originally - Tony Hill and Marais Erasmus, Nigel Llong (third), Tyron
Wijewardena (fourth)
Revised - Tony Hill and Marais Erasmus, Tyron Wijewardena (third), Billy
Bowden (fourth)

*Zimbabwe v Kenya*
Originally - Billy Doctrove and Kumar Dharmasena, Ian Gould (third), Simon
Taufel (fourth)
Revised - Asoka de Silva and Kumar Dharmasena, Ian Gould (third), Billy
Doctrove (fourth)

*India v West Indies*
Originally - Steve Davis and Bruce Oxenford, Asoka de Silva (third), Shahvir
Tarapore (fourth)
Revised - Steve Davis and Simon Taufel, Bruce Oxenford (third), Shahvir
Tarapore (fourth)

© ESPN EMEA Ltd.


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Saurabh Malhotra

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