JOHANNESBURG, March 5: South Africa’s David Orchard and Zimbabwe’s Russell Tiffin, two of the International Cricket Council’s elite panel of umpires, were dropped on Wednesday 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 contine to be made I’m sure. And in this respect I’d like to compliment the players for their behaviour which we think has been excellent throughout the tournament thus far.”

He said the only incident the disciplinary committee had been forced to deal with was when Australia’s Adam Gilchrist accused fellow keeper Rashid Latif of Pakistan of racial abuse. Rashid was not found guilty.

“But apart from that I don’t think I can recall seeing one nasty incident on the field of dissent or verbal abuse and I think the players deserve some sort of credit in that regard,” Richardson added.

Richardson said umpires were judged on captains’ reports, match referees’ reports and reviews carried out by the ICC management at Lord’s, assisted by retired Australia umpire Tony Crafter.

“We get the captains’ reports and we encourage them to be as objective as possible. In the past you tended to find the winning captain was pretty much pro the umpire and the losing captain was not.

“But I think they are becoming more professional about it and we get a lot more value from the captains’ reports.”

All five full time members of the ICC match referee panel — Clive Lloyd, Ranjan Madugalle, Mike Procter, Wasim Raja and Gundappa Viswanath — will officiate in the Super Six.

Umpires retained for the Super Six are Billy Bowden, Steve Bucknor, Aleem Dar, Asoka de Silva, Daryl Harper, Darrell Hair, Brian Jerling, Rudi Koertzen, David Shepherd, Simon Taufel, Srinivas Venkataraghavan and Peter Willey.

Super Six schedule:

March 7: Australia v Sri Lanka at Centurion. Umpires: B.F. Bowden (New Zealand) and D.R. Shepherd (England). TV umpire: B.G. Jerling (South Africa). Match referee: M.J. Procter (South Africa).

March 7: India v Kenya at Cape Town (D/N). Umpires: D.J. Harper (Australia) and P. Willey (England). TV umpire: S.J.A. Taufel (Australia). Match referee: Wasim Raja (Pakistan).

March 8: Zimbabwe v New Zealand at Bloemfontein. Umpires: D.B. Hair (Australia) and R.E. Koertzen (South Africa). TV umpire: E.A.R. de Silva (Sri Lanka). Match referee: G.R. Viswanath (India).

March 10: India v Sri Lanka at Johannesburg. Umpires: D.R. Shepherd (England) and S.J.A. Taufel (Australia). TV umpire: D.J. Harper (Australia). Match referee: C.H. Lloyd (West Indies).

March 11: Australia v New Zealand at Port Elizabeth. Umpires: S.A. Bucknor (West Indies) and E.A.R. de Silva (Sri Lanka). TV umpire: B.G. Jerling (South Africa). Match referee: R.S. Madugalle (Sri Lanka).

March 12: Zimbabwe v Kenya at Bloemfontein. Umpires: Aleem Dar (Pakistan) and S. Venkataraghavan (India). TV umpire: B.F. Bowden (New Zealand). Match referee: Wasim Raja (Pakistan).

March 14: India v New Zealand at Centurion. Umpires: D.J. Harper (Australia) and P. Willey (England). TV umpire: D.B. Hair (Australia). Match referee: R.S. Madugalle (Sri Lanka).

March 15: Zimbabwe v Sri Lanka at East London. Umpires: B.G. Jerling and R.E. Koertzen (both South Africa). TV umpire: S. Venkataraghavan (India). Match referee: C.H. Lloyd (West Indies).

March 15: Australia v Kenya at Durban (D/N). Umpires: B.F. Bowden (New Zealand) and S.A. Bucknor (West Indies). TV umpire: E.A.R. de Silva (Sri Lanka). Match referee: M.J. Procter (South Africa).—AFP