CRICKETERS WHO BECAME UMPIRES
UMPIRES :
The word 'Umpire' has been taken from an old French word 'Nompere' which means a member who does not belong just to one team. An umpire is a person on cricket field who takes all the decisions that conforms with the laws of cricket. In general an umpire is one who takes all decisions like legality of ball, boundaries, sixes, all type of wickets, etc.
There have been very few international cricketers who became umpires under International Cricket Council. This article focuses on some umpires who were cricketers previously.
CHARLES BANNERMAN
Alexander Charles Bannerman was a right handed batsman and left arm medium fast Australian bowler. He made his test debut against England on 15th March 1877.
He became the first batsman to face the first ever ball of test cricket and first batsman to score century in test cricket where he scored 165*.
His career was unfortunately very short as he got to play only three test matches before retiring due to an injury. He scored a total of 239 runs with an average of 59.75.
His career as an umpire began in 1887 which lasted till 1902. He began his career in a match between Australia and England on 28 January 1887 which was played at Sydney Cricket Ground.
He umpired in 12 test matches and proved himself as a fair umpire. He was very fair even when his brother was in front of him as a player.
There was an incident where an English bowler appealed for an lbw against an Australian batsman Joe Darling which was turned down by Charles because bowler came in front of him and impact could not been seen. Australia won the match by 13 runs in which Joe contributed 160 runs. Joe was on 50 when appeal was turned down.
Charles was accused for making bias decision by an English wicket keeper. For this wicket keeper was berated when Charles filed a complaint against him after the match.
JOHN HAMPSHIRE
John Hampshire was a right handed batsman and right arm leg break English bowler.
He made his test debut against West Indies on 26 June 1969 and ODI debut on 5 January 1971 against Australia.
He played 8 tests and scored 403 runs which included a century on debut where he scored 107 runs against West Indies. He became the first English player to score century on test debut.
He has appeared in 3 and 577 matches in ODIs (48 runs) and first class (28059 runs) cricket respectively.
He began his umpiring career under ICC with the Ashes series in 1989 at Old Trafford.
He made his presence as an umpire in 21 tests and 20 ODIs.
He was, including first class cricket, a very respected umpire and was admired a lot.
ION GOULD
Ian Gould was a left handed batsman and wicket keeper in England team who was born on 19 August 1957.
Ian James Gould was also called Gunner by his teammates. He made his one day international debut against New Zealand on 15 January 1983. He has appeared in 18 ODI matches and 298 matches in first class cricket where he scored 155 and 8756 runs respectively.
He started his career as an umpire on 19 November 2008 but was promoted to Elite ICC panel of Umpires one year prior to his first test as an umpire. He has umpired in 74 test matches, 140 one day international matches and 37 matches in twenty-twenty cricket.
He stood in his 100th international match in world cup of 2011 in Pool A match of Australia and Sri Lanka. He was also the one among sixteen umpires of 2019 World Cup.
ASOKA DE SILVA
Asoka De Silva whose full name is Ellawalakankanamge Asoka Ranjit De Silva is one of the best umpires in the world. He was a right arm leg break bowler and left handed Sri Lankan batsman.
He had a very short career as a cricketer with just 10 tests and 28 ODIs. He scored 185 runs in test cricket and 138 runs in one day internationals. He was a very useful spinner too with 25 wickets at international level in his bag.
He has stood in 49 tests, 122 ODIs and 11 twenty-twenties. Asoka was included in Elite ICC panel of Umpires in the year 2002 and dropped down during the year 2008 and was invited back to the panel in April 2008.
PETER WILLEY
Peter Willey was an English cricketer who served his country as a right handed batsman and right arm off break bowler.
On 22 July 1976 he made his test debut against West Indies and went on to play 25 more tests, scoring 1184 runs in his test cricket career.
He appeared in 26 one day internationals and score 538 runs with an average run rate of 23.39.
After his retirement he began his umpiring career in 1996 in a test match. He has stood in 25 test matches and 34 one day internationals. Because of ECB policy which decides the age at which an umpire has to retire, in 2015, he had to retire at the age of 65 to pave the way for new comers.
JAMES LILLYWHITE JNR
James Lillywhite was an English cricketer who was a left handed batsman and left arm slow medium bowler. He has appeared in just 2 tests and 256 first class cricket matches where he scored 16 runs and 5523 runs respectively.
He also has 8 wickets in test and 1210 wickets in first class cricket matches. He is the first player in the cricket history who leaded a team in the international cricket. However he lost the toss for English team and was put into bat.
He began his umpiring career in 1881 and umpired in 5 more tests from 1881 to 1899.
KUMAR DHARMASENA
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