JOHANNESBURG, 6 March 2003 — South Africa’s David Orchard and Zimbabwe’s Russell Tiffin, two of the International Cricket Council’s elite panel of umpires, were dropped yesterday from further World Cup matches after failing to impress in the group stages. But England’s Peter Willey, who refused to officiate in Zimbabwe on safety grounds, has been retained for the Super Six stage of the competition which will feature three Australians — Daryl Harper, Darrell Hair and Simon Taufel. ICC general manager David Richardson admitted mistakes had been made. “What we’ve taken into account is the form of the umpires. There might be one or two who have missed out for the rest of this tournament not because they are necessarily bad umpires but simply because they might not be in the best of form,” he said. “Mistakes have been made, they will always continue to be made I’m sure. And in this respect I’d like to compliment the players for their behavior which we think has been excellent throughout the tournament thus far.” All five full time members of the ICC match referee panel — Clive Lloyd, Ranjan Madugalle, Mike Procter, Wasim Raja and Gundappa Viswanath — will officiate. Super Six umpires Billy Bowden (Nzl), Steve Bucknor (WIs), Aleem Dar (Pak), Asoka de Silva (Sri), Daryl Harper (Aus), Darrell Hair (Aus), Brian Jerling (Rsa), Rudi Koertzen (Rsa), David Shepherd (Eng), Simon Taufel (Aus), S. Venkataraghavan (Ind), Peter Willey (Eng).

India Batsman Sehwag

in Injury Scare

In Cape Town, India suffered a World Cup scare yesterday when opening batsman Virender Sehwag was taken to hospital with a finger injury. X-rays, however, showed there was no fracture. Sehwag grimaced in pain after misjudging a high catch hit for him by coach John Wright. Captain Saurav Ganguly immediately shouted out for the team physio before Sehwag was led away. Team media manager Amrit Mathur said: “There is no fracture. X-rays have shown there is no break. He should be fine but right now he is very stiff and sore. “We will assess the injury on Thursday to see if he can play against Kenya.” India play Kenya in their first match of the World Cup Super Sixes on Friday at Cape Town.