Test cricket sees return of neutral umpires

Test cricket will see the return of neutral umpires in Test cricket, according to International Cricket Council's (ICC) latest ruling. However, the ODIs and T20Is will see the matches being officiated by the home umpires.

The governing body introduced the concept of home umpires earlier last year when the Covid-19 pandemic was at its peak. However, with the passage of time, the threat of the pandemic has relatively died down and normality is being restored.

The ruling was passed in an ICC Board meeting held in Dubai on April 10 where a number of matters were discussed including Ramiz Raja's proposal of hosting a 4-nation series.

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Addressing the umpires' situation, the ICC remarked that the performance of the home umpires remained "strong" and remained encouraging.

The ICC statement read: "The CEC was updated on the use of home umpires from July 2020 to February 2022 due to Covid-19 [...] The committee acknowledged that the performance of home umpires was strong and had not affected games. The use of home umpires had also led to 12 members of the international panel of umpires making their Test match debut."

The decision to retain home umpires for the limited-overs cricket is backed heavily by their performances throughout the series during the pandemic.

As such the structure for appointing match officials for 2022-23 season will be as follows: