Champions Trophy 2025: Two Indian match officials opt not to travel to Pakistan

On Wednesday, February 5, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has revealed the list of 15 match officials for the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy 2025, scheduled to start on February 19 in Pakistan and Dubai.

Interestingly, the tournament will not feature any Indian match official with former Indian pacer Javagal Srinath taking a leave to stay with his family. On the other hand, umpire Nitin Menon, who is part of the ICC Elite Panel of Umpires, also decided not to travel to Pakistan.

Though Nitin Menon could’ve umpired the matches in Dubai, ICC follows a strict rule of appointing neutral umpires. Notably, Team India will play all of its matches in Dubai during the Champions Trophy.

"The ICC wanted to put him (Menon) on the Champions Trophy roster. But he decided against travelling to Pakistan due to personal reasons," a BCCI source told news agency PTI.

"Yes I had asked for leave as I had quite a few days away from home in the month of November, December and January,” Javagal Srinath told TOI.

Former Australian cricketer David Boon, former Lankan Ranjan Madugalle, and former Zimbabwe cricketer Andrew Pycroft have been named as match referees for the showpiece event.

"A distinguished panel of 12 umpires will officiate the eight-team event, with six returning officials from the 2017 edition, including Richard Kettleborough, who stood in the final of the previous Champions Trophy in the UK," the ICC said in the media release.

"Dharmasena will be extending his stint of officiating 132 ODIs at the upcoming tournament, a record for an umpire from Sri Lanka in the One-Day format,” the statement added. 

List of match officials for Champions Trophy 2025: 

Umpires: Kumar Dharmasena, Chris Gaffaney, Michael Gough, Adrian Holdstock, Richard Illingworth, Richard Kettleborough, Ahsan Raza, Paul Reiffel, Sharfuddoula Ibne Shahid, Rodney Tucker, Alex Wharf, Joel Wilson.

Match Referees: David Boon, Ranjan Madugalle, Andrew Pycroft.

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