Billy Doctrove

Controversial umpire Steve Bucknor, who was kept out of international matches after a string of poor decisions in the infamous Sydney Test, returns to officiate in the upcoming Australia-New Zealand Test series.

Umpire Billy Doctrove has announced his retirement from umpiring and will not be seeking an extension to his contract that expires at the end of this month.

England's Chris Broad was on Wednesday appointed match referee for the upcoming tri-nation ODI series between India, Sri Lanka and New Zealand.

Ashoka De Silva, Enamul Huq and Nadir Shah will officiate in three-match One-day series between India and Bangladesh beginning from May 10.

Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar won the toss and elected to field against India in the second and final cricket Test at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Friday.

Pakistan were reeling at 109/4 - 345 runs in arrears of Australia's mammoth first-innings total at stumps on the second of the Boxing Day Test at the MCG.

Sri Lanka's Ranjan Madugalle and Roshan Mahanama have been appointed match referees for the upcoming Test and ODI cricket series between India and England this month.

The effectiveness of the referral system was under a cloud on Friday when it failed to deliver a fair decision in the case of Mitchell Johnson.

England has formally invited Pakistan to play three Tests, five ODIs and a Twenty20 match in 2010 as a bilateral agreement between the two countries.

PCB said it would wait to hear from the ICC before deciding "its future course of action" on the prospect of umpire Darrell Hair's return to the ICC's elite panel.

Ranjan Madugalle, Chris Broad and Alan Hurst have been appointed match referees for next month's ICC World Twenty20 Championship in England.

The International Cricket Council on Wednesday appointed Allan Hurst and Chris Broad as match referees for India's Test and ODI series against Sri Lanka respectively.

The ICC re-awarded the infamous 2006 Oval Test to England, a match that was originally deemed forfeited by Pakistan but declared a draw.

Following Pakistan's 14-run win against England on Monday, there were familiar murmurs in some quarters about the England players being unhappy with the state of the ball.

Cricket matches between England and Pakistan have often been a fraught affair, with rows over umpiring, ball-tampering, abandoned fixtures and a spot-fixing scandal all contributing to a tense relationship.

Umpire Darrel Hair was suspended from umpiring Test and international matches by the ICC but earlier this year he was reinstated again, a decision which didn't go down well with Inzamam.

The bitterness caused by the Oval Test fiasco and the spot-fixing scandal notwithstanding, Pakistan's Zaheer Abbas is hopeful that the series against England will be free of any controversies.

Persistent rain since last night has forced umpires to abandon the third day's play of the first Test between India and Bangladesh at Chittagong on Sunday.

During a commentary stint, Shikhar Dhawan playfully blamed Ambati Rayudu for India's 2004 U-19 World Cup loss to Pakistan. Dhawan recalled Rayudu's one-match ban for breaching the ICC Code of Conduct due to excessive time-wasting in a group match against Sri Lanka. Consequently, Rayudu missed the semifinal, which India lost, and Pakistan ultimately won the tournament.

No Indian features in the International Cricket Council's umpires' panel for the 2012-13 season in which England's Nigel Llong was on Monday named as the replacement for the recently-retired Billy Doctrove.