NEW DELHI: Australia's Simon Taufel and Ian Gould of England were on Sunday named as the umpires for Wednesday's highly-charged World Cup semifinal between IndiaPakistan. Sri Lanka's Ranjan Madugalle will be match referee with New Zealand's Billy Bowden and Australian Rod Tucker acting as the third and fourth umpires respectively. For the first semifinal between Sri Lanka and New Zealand in Colombo, Steve Davis of Australia and Aleem Dar of Pakistan will be the on-field umpires. Chris Broad is the match referee with South Africa's Marais Erasmus and Billy Doctrove of West Indies, the third and fourth umpires respectively. World Cup saves 50-over format International Cricket Council chief executive Haroon Lorgat Monday said the World Cup has removed doubts over the future of the 50-over format of the game. “I am satisfied that we have delivered a successful World Cup and with three matches to go I am confident that any doubts over the future of ODI cricket are now bizarre,” Lorgat told the The Press Club of Sri Lanka. Since last year there were calls for a major overhaul of the 50-over format which was deemed to be under threat from Twenty20 cricket. But Lorgat said talk of ODIs being in crisis was self-inflicting. “As a game we were self-inflicting a crisis on 50-over cricket. Some great – and some not so great – players were questioning the future of 50-over cricket, although there was no evidence of a crisis with stadiums packed,” said Lorgat. “The ICC kept an open mind, allowing administrators to explore or experiment,” added the ICC chief of the innovations of split innings of 25 overs used in Australia and the introduction of power-plays. “As the governing body we conducted a survey of 676 million people in five markets – England, New Zealand, India, South Africa and Bangladesh – which showed there was not just an interest but a passion for ODIs.” Lorgat hoped an ODI league starting later this year would generate more interest. “Clearly, everything was not well and there were signs of apprehension, so an ODI league has been planned which would be popular across all markets,” said Lorgat of the league which would take place over a four-year period. “What we probably need to be focusing on is the context in which ODIs are being played and the content and if we get those two issues right it would increase the popularity.
