Lanka-India Test series officials

Three umpires from the ICC's elite panel will be joined by three from the international panel to officiate the three-Test series between Sri Lanka and India starting next month.

Australian Daryl Harper will stand with England's Mark Benson in the first Test from December 2-6. Another Australian Simon Taufel will officiate with Pakistan's Nadeem Ghauri in the second Test from December 10-14. The third and final Test (from December 18-22) will be officiated by New Zealand's Brent 'Billy' Bowden and Asad Rauf of Pakistan.

Harper (53 Tests), Taufel (27 Tests) and Bowden (31 Tests) are from the elite panel of umpires. Taufel was voted the Best Umpire for the second successive year by the ICC at its awards night in Sydney recently.

Benson will officiate the last three one-day internationals between Sri Lanka and India starting with the fifth at Ahmedabad on November 6. He takes over from Bowden who is standing in the first four. The Tests will be played at New Delhi, Kanpur and Chennai but the order of venues have yet to be decided.

Former West Indies captain Clive Lloyd will be the match referee for the series. Lloyd is the second most experienced ICC match referee after Sri Lanka's Ranjan Madugalle who is the chief referee of the elite panel. He has officiated in 48 Tests and 112 ODIs in comparison to Madugalle's 80 Tests and 172 ODIs.

ST