ICC dropped Umpire Asoka de Silva from key games

Umpire Asoka de Silva will not officiate in a duo of crucial group games that he was originally assigned for. Asoka de Silva was under immense criticism during the World Cup contest due to his decision-making was not up to the mark. He is the only umpire among the 18-member team deployed whose success percentage in reviewed decisions is less than 50%.

He was proposed to have been one of the on-field umpires for Thursday's vital contest between England and West Indies, and he was also the third umpire for the India-West Indies fixture. Instead, according to ICC's revised list, he will be the fourth umpire in the Ireland-Netherlands match on Friday, and will be an on-field umpire in the Zimbabwe-Kenya game on Sunday. Both those games are insignificant, with all four teams already out of the World Cup.

Bruce Oxenford will officiate now in Thursday's match between England and West Indies, he was originally supposed to be fourth umpire in that game, while Simon Taufel will be the third umpire. For the India and West Indies competition, Taufel and Steve Davies will be the on-field umpires, with Oxenford the third umpire.

Asoka de Silva has had a poor World Cup so far, with quite a lot of his decisions being reversed by the Umpire Decision Review System (UDRS), out of the seven times his decisions have been defied, only three times has his original call stood. One of those three cases was the lbw decision against Ireland's Gary Wilson in the match against West Indies. Wilson challenged the call, and replays obviously showed the ball had struck his pad outside the line off when he was attempting a shot, but de Silva declined to alter his decision, a move that was strongly criticized by Ireland captain William Porterfield.

The alteration in the umpiring schedule is as follows;

• England v West Indies
  
  Originally - Asoka de Silva and Steve Davis, Shahvir Tarapore (third), Bruce Oxenford (fourth)
  
  Revised - Bruce Oxenford and Steve Davis, Simon Taufel (third), Shahvir Tarapore (fourth)
  

• Ireland v Netherlands
  
  Originally - Simon Taufel and Ian Gould, Kumar Dharmasena (third), Billy Doctrove (fourth)
  
  Revised - Billy Doctrove and Ian Gould, Kumar Dharmasena (third), Asoka de Silva (fourth)
  

• Australia v Pakistan
  
  Originally - Tony Hill and Marais Erasmus, Nigel Llong (third), Tyron Wijewardena (fourth)
  
  Revised - Tony Hill and Marais Erasmus, Tyron Wijewardena (third), Billy Bowden (fourth)
  

• Zimbabwe v Kenya
  
  Originally - Billy Doctrove and Kumar Dharmasena, Ian Gould (third), Simon Taufel (fourth)
  
  Revised - Asoka de Silva and Kumar Dharmasena, Ian Gould (third), Billy Doctrove (fourth)
  

• India v West Indies
  
  Originally - Steve Davis and Bruce Oxenford, Asoka de Silva (third), Shahvir Tarapore (fourth)
  
  Revised - Steve Davis and Simon Taufel, Bruce Oxenford (third), Shahvir Tarapore (fourth)