Prakash Bhatt becomes second Indian after Javagal Srinath to be Test match referee

Prakash Bhatt during the toss between Bangladesh and West Indies (Image credit: BCB)

MUMBAI: Former Saurashtra cricketer Prakash Bhatt on Wednesday made his ‘Test debut’ in Mirpur, Dhaka, in the first Test between Bangladesh and West Indies as a ICC match referee.Bhatt has thus become only the second Indian after ex-India pacer Javagal Srinath to become a match referee in Tests.

In April this year, Bhatt had been chosen by the International Cricket Council in a newly created three-member Emerging panel of ICC international match referees.The ICC has an 'Elite panel' which has five match referees (Javagal Srinath, Andy Pycroft, Richie Richardson, Ranjan Madugalle and Jeff Crowe), with three referees from the newly created Emerging panel added to the list.

The development meant that the ICC would post Bhatt to officiate in plenty of international games, including Test matches.Bhatt has been a BCCI match referee in domestic cricket since the 2007-2008 season. He has been an IPL match referee since 2018. He has been with the ICC since 2024. He is the first Indian to be included in the inaugural ICC Emerging panel of Match Referees.In his international career so far, Bhatt has officiated in 48 T20Is, six ODIs, four Women’s T20Is and three Women’s ODIs. He has also officiated in 67 first-class matches and 75 IPL matches so far. The 56-year-old Bhatt officiated in 13 matches in the Under-19 ODI World Cup held in Jan-Feb in Zimbabwe and Namibia. In Oct last year, Bhatt officiated in the Australia versus New Zealand T20I series in New Zealand.Bhatt played 51 first-class matches (3,183 runs at 39.29, seven centuries) and 38 List A matches (1,007 runs at 33.56, six fifties) between 1994-95 and 2004-05.