Six new umpires have been called up to the first-class panel for the 2017-18 season, CSA announced on Tuesday.

The first-class panel has undergone an expansion from 12 members to 17 members. The amateur panel has been scrapped and in its place, a reserve list of umpires has formed.

Gerrie Pienaar has stepped down from his position to assume one of three positions on the umpire coach panel. The remaining two positions will be filled by Shaid Wadvalla and Laurence Matroos, who were a match referee and amateur umpire respectively.

Faizel Samsoodien has retired from umpiring due to personal reasons, following a long and committed contribution on the amateur panel.

 CSA general manager, Corrie van Zyl, extended his congratulations to the newly-appointed umpires.

‘Congratulations to all our umpires on their deserved appointments for the approaching season,’ he said.

‘Umpires are central to the game of cricket and we are fortunate to have an extremely competent group of match officials. The new appointments are indicative of the successes achieved within the CSA Umpire Acceleration Program,’ he added.

Senior umpires, Marais Erasmus (ICC Elite Panel), Shaun George and Adrian Holdstock (both ICC International Panel) and Bongani Jele (ICC TV Panel) will continue to serve on the various ICC panels.

New Appointments to the First-Class Panel: Thomas Mokorosi, Siphelele Gasa, Arno Jacobs, Abdoellaah Steenkamp, Ryan Hendricks and Philip Vosloo. 

CSA First-Class Umpires Panel: Murray Brown, Johan Cloete, Siphelele Gasa, Babs Gcuma, Shaun George, Stephen Harris, Ryan Hendricks, Adrian Holdstock, Clifford Isaacs, Arno Jacobs, Bongani Jele, Thomas Mokorosi, Allahudien Paleker, Dennis Smith, Abdoellaah Steenkamp, Philip Vosloo, Brad White

CSA Match Referees Panel: Tiffie Barnes, Devdas Govindjee, Barry Lambson, Zama Ndamane