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DUBAI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) will pay a glowing tribute to umpire Steve Bucknor, who has decided to retire from officiating in international cricket next month.

“Steve’s contribution to our great sport over two decades at the top level of umpiring has been immense. We will pay Steve the tribute for his outstanding service to the game merits once his final appointments have been completed,” ICC Chief Executive Haroon Lorgat said.

“To have remained as one of the game’s top officials for that length of time has required Steve to be self-motivated, confident and well respected, and he has all those qualities in abundance, while at the same time remaining a very humble man,” Lorgat added.

The 62-year-old Jamaican’s last Test assignment will be the third match between South Africa and Australia in Cape Town from March 19, while the two ODIs between West Indies and England in Barbadoes will be his last match commitment at international level.

“In the meantime, I know that Steve, being the understated man that he is, will want to focus on the job at hand, that of getting things right on the field, something he has done as well as any other umpire in the history of the game,” Lorgat said in an ICC release.

Bucknor officiated in a record 126 Tests and 179 ODIs, including every World Cup final since 1992.

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Stephen Anthony Bucknor popularly known as Steve Bucknor was born in Montego Bay Jamaica on May 31 1946. He became a high school maths teacher and sports coach before going on to be one of Jamaica’s leading sports officials as an international football referee but more famously as an international cricket umpire. The highlight of his time as a FIFA referee was the World Cup qualifier between El Salvador and the Netherlands Anitilles in 1988. Soon after this Bucknor had to retire from football refereeing because the FIFA age limit for referees was lowered to 45. However this allowed him to pursue his career as a cricket umpire. Bucknors first international cricket fixture was a one-day international ODI between the West Indies and India at Antigua on March 18 1989. His first test match was at Sabina Park Kingston Jamaica between April 28 and May 3 1989 with the competing teams again being the West Indies and India. He quickly earned the respect of the players and after just a handful of international matches he was selected to umpire at the 1992 Cricket World Cup in Australasia and went on to stand in the final. He also stood in the next 3 world cup finals in 1996- 1999 & 2003 and with the 2007 world cup to be held in his native Caribbean, he says it would be the ultimate honour to stand in a fifth final in front of his home crowd. In the early 1990’s the International Cricket Council ICC introduced a policy of one home umpire and one neutral umpire for all test matches. The neutral officials were chosen from a panel of the worlds best umpires and Bucknor had the honour of being included in the inaugural list. In 2002 the ICC changed its policy again and decided to have two neutral umpires in ech test match and one neutral & one home umpire in each ODI. The neutral officials are selected from the ICC Elite Umpire Panel for which Bucknor was all but guaranteed a place having been considered by far the best umpire in the world throughout the 1990s and early 2000’s. He had built up the respect of the players through his accurate decision making and calm but authoritative on field manner skills that mean he continues to be one of the world’s top umpires. Aside from his world record four world cup finals Bucknor has stood in the third highest number of ODI’s passing a landmark of 150 ODI’s with the Champions Trophy match between India and Australia at Mohali on 29 October 2006. Bucknor has also umpired more test matches than anyone else 113 to date. The highlights of his test match career include Bangladeshs first ever test match his 100th Test the macth between India and Pakistan at Eden Gardens Calcutta in March 2005 and no fewer than 12 Ashes Tests, including the thrilling Boxing day test in 1998 and the Old Trafford test in 2005. His umpiring career has not been without controversy for instance he has accused television companies of doctoring their coverage of cricket to make umpires look bad. He has also had to defend his reputation in recent times after some shocking decisions. Lately however he has been back to his best, getting 96% of his decisions right in 2005-06, which is way above the average for the international panels. Steve Bucknor continues to be regarded as one of crickets very best umpires and he has a very strong and unususal position for a sports official in that the players are actually pleased to learn that Bucknor will be umpiring their matches because they can trust him to be accurate fair and completely honest. Bucknor is also a favourite with the spectators and his lengthy pause for consideration before raising the finger of doom is very much a popular trademark among cricket followers and has earned Steve the nickname Slow Death Bucknor a fitting nickname for one of the world’s greatest ever cricket umpires.

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Former Natal and Middlesex fast bowler Vincent van der Bijl has been appointed ICC Umpires and Referees manager as part of a major initiative designed to bolster the department and improve the overall standard of officiating at the elite level. Van der Bijl will work as part of the ICC Cricket Operations Department under David Richardson ICC general manager Cricket and will have overall responsibility for the management and smooth running of the umpires and referees section. Current ICC Umpires manager Doug Cowie will report to Van der Bijl and oversee the direct development mentoring and coaching of the umpires as well as feeding back performance related information. In order to increase the level of support to umpires five regional umpires managers soon to be appointed will be responsible for working with umpires on the Emirates Elite and International Panels from those regions as well as all visiting umpires. They will report back to Cowie as part of his overall umpiring strategy. The task force conducted a survey of top umpires and the results showed us that we needed to provide speedier feedback and ongoing mentoring to them said Richardson. One of the key recommendations was that five regional coaches be brought on board to provide support to our umpires and that is what we are doing now. I am delighted with Vinces appointment. He was a fine player who later became a successful businessman. More recently he has been working with Cricket South Africa helping to develop the next generation of players. He is hugely respected and very well liked. The five Regional Umpires managers all have first hand experience with the trials challenges and rewards of umpiring at a high level. They all have credibility and respect in the cricket world and they know the issues that face umpires these days. I have no doubt these appointments will be good for the umpires and the game. These appointments are part of the ICCs commitment to ensuring that the standard of international cricket umpiring remains high and that we get the most out of our best officials.

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In an unprecedented decision we see that an elite panel umpire has been removed from a match list because of criticism and complaints about his performance. We have the spectacle of a professional umpire left isolated with no form of redress or rebuttal against those criticising him. The treatment of Steve Bucknor is unfair unjust unprofessional unacceptable and against the Spirit of the Game. Umpires should not be abandoned as a result of adverse criticism from any source. Umpires and captains have the responsibility for ensuring that the game of cricket is played according to the Laws and in the Spirit of the Game. It seems that little of that spirit is afforded to umpires. This damages respect for the game and its umpires at all levels. Steve Bucknor should have been afforded proper treatment by his employers which should have included private performance assessment and a commitment to have him resume umpiring international cricket in the near future. ICUS is unequivocal in its complete support for Steve Bucknor and his colleague Mark Benson. Such instances provide further evidence of the need for a completely independent body which can represent umpires at all levels of the game. Support for umpire Bucknor has not come from official cricket organisations it has come from professional players and journalists who are speaking out against an injustice and voicing concern for the future of cricket and the officials who stand in the game. The acceptance of the umpire’s decision is at the very heart of cricket. It is an unacceptable blame game to publicly remove an umpire from an upcoming appointment when decisions taken in good faith made honestly and to the best of his ability are not accepted without it resulting in a worldwide incident.

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AUSTRALIAN Steve Davis has been elevated to the International Cricket Council’s elite panel of umpires. Davis and Sri Lanka’s Asoka de Silva were promoted to increase the number on the panel from 10 to 12 in a move designed to ease the load on the leading umpires. Davis, 56, has stood in 11 Tests, 71 one-day internationals and three Twenty20 internationals, having made his top level debut in 1992.

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Umpires play an important role in cricket, and this role was formally acknowledged in 2003-04 when Cricket Australia and the state/territory cricket associations celebrated the Year of the Official. There are many opportunities to become involved in officiating at all levels of cricket. Contact your local state/territory cricket association for information on the umpire training programs and the different levels of umpire accreditation. To get involved with umpiring, simply click on your state below to email the relevant state umpiring representative. Opportunities exist for umpires to progress along a structured career program from local and district level, to state panels and Cricket Australia contracts. Australia is also well represented on the international panel of umpires who officiate in Test and one-day international matches around the world.

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Darrell Hair, the Australian umpire who was barred from standing in top-level cricket matches following a controversial abandoned Test between England and Pakistan, was on Tuesday reinstated as one of the game’s elite officials.

Hair has not taken charge of a Test or a major international one-day match since he and his West Indian colleague Billy Doctrove penalised Pakistan five runs for alleged ball-tampering during the fourth and final Test against England at The Oval in August 2006.

The decision infuriated the Pakistanis and their captain, Inzamam-ul-Haq, refused to play on, resulting in the match being abandoned after tea on the fourth day with England awarded the first victory by forfeit in the history of the game.

Hair, who has since been restricted to One-day Internationals involving minor nations, was cleared to return to umpiring Tests and ODIs between the leading cricket nations at a meeting of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in

Dubai.

“The board has decided that he can be appointed to matches involving full member countries once more,” a spokesman for the governing body confirmed.

Hair’s return to the fold follows a six-month rehabilitation programme which he agreed to undertake last October, when he dropped a race discrimination claim against the ICC on the seventh day of a ten-day hearing at a London employment tribunal.

The row over Hair’s umpiring style and treatment has served to highlight deep-seated fault lines in cricket, where the traditional dominance of England and Australia in the sport’s corridors of powers has increasingly been challenged in recent years by India – by far the world’s most valuable cricket market – and its south Asian neighbours

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