Dubai: The International Cricket Council Tuesday named four World Cup winners in a 25-member match officials' team for next year's World Cup, setting the ball rolling with 73 days to go for the mega event.
Australia and New Zealand co-host the event from February 14 which ends with the final in Melbourne on March 29.
A total of 49 matches will be played across 14 venues, seven in New Zealand (Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Hamilton, Napier, Nelson and Wellington) and seven in Australia (Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney).
The five match referees -- from the elite panel:
David Boon (Australia)
Chris Broad (England)
Jeff Crowe (New Zealand)
Ranjan Madugalle (Sri Lanka)
Roshan Mahanama (Sri Lanka)
The elite panel umpires are:
Pakistan - Aleem Dar
New Zealand - Billy Bowden
Australia - Bruce Oxenford, Paul Reiffel, Rod Tucker and Steve Davis
England - Ian Gould, Nigel Llong, Richard Illingworth and Richard Kettleborough
Sri Lanka - Kumar Dharmasena
South Africa - Marais Erasmus
Eight umpires from the international panel will also officiate matches:
South Africa - Johan Cloete
Australia - Simon Fry
New Zealand - Chris Gaffaney
England - Michael Gough
Sri Lanka - Ranmore Martinesz and Ruchira Palliyaguru
India - Ravi Sundaram
West Indies - Joel Wilson
The World Cup winners in the line-up are Boon (1987), Dharmasena, Mahanama (1996) and Reiffel (1999).
The umpires were chosen by the selection panel of Geoff Allardice (ICC General Manager - Cricket), Ranjan Madugalle (ICC Chief Match Referee), David Lloyd (former player, coach, umpire and now television commentator) and Srinivas Venkataraghavan (former elite panel umpire).
The specific match appointments will be announced in February after the warm-up matches, the ICC said.