Cricket SA (CSA) on Tuesday announced the promotion of six umpires to the first-class panel for the 2017/18 season. They are Thomas Mokorosi, Siphelele Gasa, Arno Jacobs, Abdoellaah Steenkamp, Ryan Hendricks and Philip Vosloo.
This is in part due to the restructuring process that has seen the size of the panel increased from 12 to 17 members while the Amateur Panel has been made redundant and has been replaced by a Reserve List of umpires.
One of the incumbent members of the First-Class Panel, Gerrie Pienaar, has retired from umpiring to pursue a career in one of the three newly instituted Umpire Coach positions. The other appointees are Shaid Wadvalla who has retired from his position as a CSA Match Referee and Laurance Matroos who is also an ex-First Class umpire.
Faizel Samsoodien has retired from umpiring due to personal reasons following a long and committed contribution on the Amateur panel.
The Match referee panel sees the inclusion of Zama Ndamane for the first time. The experience and skill that he brings to this group as an ex-top flight umpire will be invaluable.
Senior umpires, Marais Erasmus (ICC Elite Panel), Shaun George and Adrian Holdstock (both ICC International Panel) and Bongani Jele (ICC TV Panel) will continue to serve on the various ICC panels.
“Congratulations to all our umpires on their deserved appointments for the approaching season,” commented Corrie van Zyl, CSA General Manager: Cricket. “Umpires are central to the game of cricket and we are fortunate to have an extremely competent group of match officials. The new appointments are indicative of the successes achieved within the CSA Umpire Acceleration Program.
“We will continue to create opportunities for them to develop through our exchange programmes with Australia, India and New Zealand.”
CSA First-Class Umpires Panel: Murray Brown, Johan Cloete, Siphelele Gasa, Babs Gcuma, Shaun George, Stephen Harris, Ryan Hendricks, Adrian Holdstock, Clifford Isaacs, Arno Jacobs, Bongani Jele, Thomas Mokorosi, Allahudien Paleker, Dennis Smith, Abdoellaah Steenkamp, Philip Vosloo, Brad White
CSA Match Referees Panel: Tiffie Barnes, Devdas Govindjee, Barry Lambson, Zama Ndamane – African News Agency (ANA)
