  For a degree d self branched covering of the 2-sphere, a notable
combinatorial invariant is an integer partition of 2d -- 2, consisting of the
multiplicities of the critical points. A finer invariant is the so called
Hurwitz passport. The realization problem of Hurwitz passports remain largely
open till today. In this article, we introduce two different types of finer
invariants: a bipartite map and an incident matrix. We then settle completely
their realization problem by showing that a map, or a matrix, is realized by a
branched covering if and only if it satisfies a certain balanced condition. A
variant of the bipartite map approach was initiated by W. Thurston. Our results
shed some new lights to the Hurwitz passport problem.
