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Excluding five involved in April’s fiasco World Cup final, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced the umpires and match referees for the inaugural Twenty20 world championships. Those five must be kicking themselves furiously, or perhaps kicking each other.

The three ICC match reference and nine umpires will officiate and during the 27-match Twenty20 World Cup, that is scheduled to take place from September 11 to 24 in South Africa,

The nine umpires include five officials fro the ICC Elite panel, namely Australians Simon Taufel and Daryl Harper, England’s Mark Benson, Billy Doctrove of the West Indies, and Asad Rauf from Pakistan as well.

The three referees, all form the ICC Elite Panel, are headed by former Sri Lanka captain Ranjan Madugalle and include Mike Procter, the former South Africa all-rounder and ex-England opening batsman Chris Broad.

The four other umpires, who are from the ICC International Panel, are Steve Davis of Australia, South African Ian Howell, England’s Nigel Liiong and Tony Hill from New Zealand. The match appointments for the opening stage of the tournament will be made and announced in due course. International Cricket Council, however, declared that it had left out all five officials who were responsible for the bungled end to the World Cup final in the West Indies earlier this year. It announced the decision to omit them last month.

Australia’s victory against Sri Lanka in the showpiece match in Barbados on April, 28 was over-shadowed by a farcical climax brought about by a failure to apply a standard playing condition. Referee Jeff Crowe, on field umpires Steve Bucknor and Aleem Dar, third umpire Rudi Koertzen and reserve official Billy Bowden incorrectly ruled, after a stoppage for bad light, the game had to continue even though the required minimum of 20 overs in the second innings had by then already been bowled. The officials insisted Sri Lanka bat out the final three overs of the game in near darkness.

All 10 Test playing countries, along with associate team Kenya and Scotland, will compete in the Twenty20 event. Matches will be played at Cape Town, Duran and Johannesburg.