Sri Lanka’s Kumar Dharmasena is one of the Elite Umpires of the International Cricket Council (ICC) who have declined to officiate in the lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 Cricket Tournament, which begins on September 19 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Instead, the veteran Sri Lankan umpire who has officiated in 65 Test matches is set to stand in as one of the on field umpires during Sri Lanka’s home series against Bangladesh, scheduled to commence on October 14.
Dharmasena is a regular umpire over the years in this high profile Franchise based T20 tournament, owned by the Board of Control for Cricket in India who have shifted the 13th edition to the UAE due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
“The ICC has already named Kumar Dharmasena as the Elite Umpire and Ranjan Madugalla as the Match Referee for all Sri Lankan home assignments until July 31, next year,” a top official of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) told the Daily News yesterday.
“The three Test matches would probably be shared by Dharmasena along with Ruchira Palliyaguruge, Raveendra Wimalasiri and Lyndon Hannibal with Prageeth Rambukwella as the reserve umpire,” the source added further.
In fact, Palliyaguruge is the most experienced umpire after Dharmasena having so far officiated in three Test matches, 79 One Day Internationals (ODIs) and 33 Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is).
Meanwhile, Wimalasiri has officiated in 14 ODIs and 28 T20Is while Hannibal has stood in seven ODIs and 13 T20Is. In addition, Rambukwella has officiated in three T20Is.
The Bangladesh team is schedule to arrive on September 27 with the Test matches to be played in Colombo and at the Pallekele Stadium in Kandy.
