MELBOURNE (Reuters)
The International Cricket Council (ICC) will appoint two neutral umpires from a panel of eight for Test matches from April 2002, ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed has said. "We will have eight umpires that will do 95 percent of the Test matches," Speed said. "Then we will have a supporting panel which will consist of two umpires from each (Test-playing) country so in total there will be 28 umpires that will be eligible for international cricket. In contrast we had 74 umpires who stood in international matches last year and that's too many."

For one-day internationals from April, the ICC will use one home umpire and one international umpire as opposed to the current practice of two home umpires. A five-man panel of referees, to be headed by Sri Lankan Ranjan Madugalle, will also be appointed to oversee games. Umpires and referees are to be appointed on two-year contracts.

Speed said with an elite panel of umpires the ICC would be able to provide more assistance to umpires in a bid to reduce the number of poor decisions. "If an umpire is clearly out of form we will work with him," he said, "and we will work a lot harder with umpires than we have done previously."

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd