PCB confirmed refs as well as star-studded commentary panel

• PSL 2023 will begin on Feb 14.
• Roshan Mahanama will head a team of five match referees.
• Asif Yaqoob and Martin Saggers will officiate the opening game.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Tuesday unveiled the match officials and a celebrity-studded commentary team for the eighth season of the Pakistan Super League (PSL).

From February 13 through March 19, four sites will host the 2019 PSL season. From 13 to 26 February, matches for the Multan and Karachi legs will be played. From 26 February to 19 March, 20 matches will be played in Lahore and Rawalpindi.

Ahsan Raza, Asif Yaqoob, Rashid Riaz, Faisal Khan Afridi, Martin Saggers, Ruchira Palliyaguruge, Alex Wharf, and Shozab Raza will accompany Aleem Dar, Richard Illingworth, and Michael Gough, three members of the ICC’s top panel of umpires. Tariq Rasheed, Muhammad Asif, and Nasir Hussain will assist them by participating in fourth umpire’s role.

For the seventh consecutive year, Roshan Mahanama, a former match referee on the ICC’s elite panel, will head a team of five match referees that also includes Ali Naqvi, Iftikhar Ahmed, Javed Malik, and Muhammad Anees.

Along with Sri Lanka’s Palliyaguruge, Wharf, who played 13 ODIs, and Saggers, who appeared in three Tests for England, will make their HBL PSL debuts. The three are participants in the ICC’s global umpire panel.

While Illingworth will be playing in his sixth HBL PSL, Gough will be making his fourth appearance in the league.

Asif Yaqoob and Martin Saggers will officiate the opening game between the defending champion Lahore Qalandars and the Multan Sultans in Multan. Shozab Raza and Faisal Afridi will officiate the third and fourth innings. The match referee will be Mohammad Anees.

On February 14 in Karachi, Ali Naqvi will be in charge of the Playing Control Team for the match between the Karachi Kings and the Peshawar Zalmi. The on-field umpires will be Ahsan Raza and Alex Wharf from England, with Tariq Rasheed serving as third umpire and Ruchira Palliyaguruge as fourth.

For the 34-match competition, the PCB has also confirmed a panel of 15 analysts and two presenters.

While Marina Iqbal and Tariq Saeed will provide commentary in Urdu, Alan Wilkins, Bazid Khan, Danny Morrison, Daren Ganga, Dominic Cork, Mark Butcher, Nick Knight, Sana Mir, Sikandar Bakht, Simon Doull, Urooj Mumtaz, Vernon Philander, and Waqar Younis will provide commentary in English. The presenters will be Zainab Abbas and Erin Holland.

Two full production kits and crews will be running concurrently for the PSL 8. This will be the first time after Covid and only the second time since HBL PSL 5.

30 cameras, together with Spidercams and buggy cams, will be used for the High-Definition broadcast coverage, enhancing the viewing experience for fans both inside and outside of Pakistan. A component of the Decision Review System (DRS) Technology will be HawkEye and UltraEdge.

The HBL PSL 8 will be accessible in regions where it is not televised on television through the PSL’s official Facebook and YouTube pages.

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