Bangladesh's Sharfudoulla named in the list of umpires for the Champions Trophy

Bangladeshi umpire Sharfudoulla Ibne Shahid Saikat has been selected to officiate in the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy, set to take place from 19 February to 9 March in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.

Matches will be held in Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, and Dubai, with all of India's matches hosted in Dubai.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced a panel of 15 match officials for the tournament, comprising 12 umpires and three match referees.

Among the selected umpires, six had officiated in the last edition of the Champions Trophy in 2017, including Richard Kettleborough, who was one of the umpires in the final.

The other returning umpires are Chris Gaffaney, Kumar Dharmasena, Richard Illingworth, Paul Reiffel, and Rod Tucker.

The six new umpires for the 2025 edition include Michael Gough, Adrian Holdstock, Ahsan Raza, Sharfudoulla, Alex Wharf, and Joel Wilson.

All six were also part of the officiating team for the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup, where Kettleborough and Illingworth officiated in the final. Sharfudoulla himself oversaw five matches in that tournament.

Sharfudoulla has been steadily establishing himself as a top international umpire.

Recently, he officiated in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy between India and Australia and was also an umpire in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup, becoming the first Bangladeshi to officiate in the tournament.

He has also officiated in two ICC Women's ODI and T20 World Cups.

In March last year, he became the first Bangladeshi umpire to be included in the ICC Elite Panel of Umpires, a prestigious recognition in the cricketing world.