LANGTON Rusere’s stock as a top International umpire continues to rise after he was named in a strong contingent of 16 match officials who will officiate at this year’s ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 to be played in Dubai in 10 days.
The history-making umpire will become the first Zimbabwean to officiate at an ICC Men’s T20 World Cup as he continues to set the bar high for those that will follow after him.
Early this year, Rusere became the first black African to stand in a Test match when he officiated in the first Test encounter between Zimbabwe and Pakistan at Harare Sports Club in April.
This year, 2021, is proving to be a good year for the 36-year-old. Still fresh from making a Test debut as an on-field umpire, he has now been appointed as one of the umpires for the T20 World Cup.
In 2018 he became the first Zimbabwean umpire to stand in the final of a major global cricket tournament as one of the on-field umpires for the Women’s World T20I final between Australia and England.
Rusere is one of the five umpires from the Emerging panel that will join 11 others from the Emirates ICC Elite Panel of Umpires.
The other four from the Emerging Panel are Adrian Holdstock (South Africa), Ahsan Raza (Pakistan), Christopher Brown (New Zealand) and Paul Wilson (Australia).
Effectively this means Rusere is in the top 16 of international umpires, and with one slot on Emirates ICC Elite Panel of Umpires still to be filled, Rusere gets another chance to audition for that slot.
ICC confirmed the appointment of Rusere and the other 15 umpires plus four-match Referees in a press statement released today.
The 16-team tournament kicks off on October 17 with a match between Oman and Papua New Guinea. The final will be played on November 14.
Complete list of match officials
Match Referees: David Boon, Jeff Crowe, Ranjan Madugalle, Javagal Srinath.
Umpires: Chris Brown, Aleem Dar, Kumar Dharmasena, Marais Erasmus, Chris Gaffaney, Michael Gough, Adrian Holdstock, Richard Illingworth, Richard Kettleborough, Nitin Menon, Ahsan Raza, Paul Reiffel, Langton Rusere, Rod Tucker, Joel Wilson, Paul Wilson.
