The decision to appoint fully professional referees, and an eight-man panel of umpires who have yet to be named, was taken by the International Cricket Council in an attempt to improve player discipline and raise standards of officiating.

Sri Lankan Ranjan Madugalle was appointed as chief referee last November, and he will also be joined by Wasim Raja of Pakistan, South African Mike Procter and India's Gundappa Viswanath.

There are no representatives from England or Australia, the game's two oldest Test-playing nations.

No Denness

The claims of Mike Denness were overlooked, despite him having the backing of the England and Wales Cricket Board.

The members of the new panel, who have all agreed two-year contracts, played a combined total of almost 300 Tests and have an average age of 51, 10 years lower than the current ICC panel.

All 10 Test-playing countries were asked to nominate candidates for the panel, and more than 30 were interviewed by Madugalle.

He then made recommendations to International Cricket Council chief executive Malcolm Speed and Sunil Gavaskar, chairman of the ICC's Cricket Committee-Playing, who had the final say.

Gavaskar took no part, however, in considering the claims of Viswanath, who is his brother-in-law.

Tough job

"I know that international captains and cricketers are looking to match referees to take a sensible and consistent lead on disciplinary and other matters," said Gavaskar.

"This new panel is a tremendous group of former Test cricketers, who I am sure will command the respect of teams around the world."

Of the five, only Madugalle and Viswanath are members of the existing panel, although Lloyd did the job for three years until 1995-96 before taking up the job of West Indies team manager.