Sharfuddoula to Officiate in Champions Trophy for the First Time

The upcoming edition of the Champions Trophy is set to kick off in just two weeks. Ahead of the tournament, the ICC has announced the list of umpires who will officiate the matches. 

Among them is Bangladesh’s Sharfuddoula Ibne Shahid Saikat, who will be making his debut as an umpire in the Champions Trophy.

On Wednesday (February 5), the ICC released the names of 15 match officials for the tournament. Among them, 12 are field umpires, while the remaining three will serve as match referees.

The 12 field umpires selected are Kumar Dharmasena, Chris Gaffaney, Michael Gough, Adrian Holdstock, Richard Illingworth, Richard Kettleborough, Ahsan Raza, Paul Reiffel, Sharfuddoula Ibne Shahid Saikat, Rod Tucker, Alex Wharf, and Joel Wilson.

Among them, six umpires had officiated in the 2017 edition of the Champions Trophy, including Richard Kettleborough, who was in charge of the final. He will be joined by Chris Gaffaney, Kumar Dharmasena, Richard Illingworth, Paul Reiffel, and Rod Tucker. Notably, Kettleborough and Illingworth also officiated in the 2023 ODI World Cup final.

The match referees for the tournament will be David Boon, Ranjan Madugalle, and Andrew Pycroft, with Boon having officiated the previous edition's final.

The eight-team tournament will begin on February 19, and it will be hosted in a hybrid model across Pakistan and the UAE, with matches taking place in four venues—Karachi, Lahore, and Rawalpindi in Pakistan, and Dubai in the UAE.

Alongside players like Najmul Hossain Shanto and Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Bangladesh will also be represented by Sharfuddoula Ibne Shahid Saikat in the umpiring panel. Over the past few years, he has impressed with his officiating, having recently officiated in the India-Australia series.

Following that, he also participated in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), where he received the highest salary among umpires. Additionally, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has introduced a new pay structure for umpires, where Saikat remains ahead of the rest.

Now, he is set to give his best performance in the Champions Trophy.