India’s Raghu, Javed named as umpires for Hockey World Cup

Lausanne, Dec 20 (IANS) India's Raghu Prasad and Javed Shaikh were on Wednesday named in the list of umpires appointed by the International Hockey Federation (FIH) for the 2018 Hockey Mens World Cup in Bhubaneswar.

The two Indians are among a total of 25 officials representing 19 countries from all five continents who will officiate at this quadrennial event taking place at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar between November 28 and December 16, FIH said in a statement.

Both men and women will undertake officiating roles at this event, further enhancing FIH's drive to boost gender parity across all areas of the sport.

Germany's Christian Deckenbrock, who took on the same role at this year's men's and women's Hockey World League (HWL) Semi-Finals in Johannesburg, South Africa, has been appointed as Technical Delegate.

Chair of the FIH Competitions Committee, Bjorn Isberg (Sweden) will support Christian in his role alongside Alfred Chang (HKG) who is familiar with this venue having been Technical Delegate for the recent HWL Final Bhubaneswar earlier this month. Both assume roles as Technical Officers alongside Edna Rutten (The Netherlands), Reyah Richardson (Trinidad and Tobago) and Kays Kanyangara (Zimbabwe).

On the field of play, there's plenty of experience. While seven of the umpires gained experience at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, the other nine will be relishing the opportunity of performing on one of the greatest stages in international hockey.

Amongst those appointed are Golden Whistle (over 100 cap) umpires Francisco Vazquez (Spain); Martin Madden (Scotland); Raghu Prasad; Javed Shaikh and Simon Taylor (New Zealand).

They will be joined by Dan Barstow (England); Marcin Grochal (Poland); Diego Barbas (Argentina); Lim Hong Zhen (Singapore); Jonas van 't Hek (The Netherlands); Adam Kearns (Australia); Peter Wright (South Africa); David Tomlinson (New Zealand); Eric Kim Lai Koh (Malaysia); Gregory Uyttenhove (Belgium) and Ben Gontgen (Germany).

Making sure they are performing to the best of their abilities will be Umpire Managers Philip Schellekens (The Netherlands) and Minka Woolley (Australia) whilst another Golden Whistle owner, Deon Nel from South Africa, will be a Video Umpire Coach to umpires who take on this role during the event. His fellow countryman, Shuaib Manjra, has been appointed the competition's Medical Officer.

(This story has not been edited by Social News XYZ staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)