Starting today we'll start a new series of articles honoring the unsung heroes of the game of cricket, the ones who ensure that the game is played in the right spirit and the ones who take all the important decisions on the field and are under scrutiny all the time and they get the least amount of credit our or anyone in cricket. We would like to change that by letting our readers know about the profile and career stats of these heroes of our game that we all love so much.
And we are starting with an umpire who is probably the most loved and imitated umpire in cricket history simply because of his unique style of signaling a four or a six or wide or out. He became famous because of his unique style and even the players copied him and had fun with him. He was strict when he needed to be but he was also a friend and one of my favorite umpires in any sport of all time. He was box office entertainment and sometimes stole the limelight from the players. So , let’s see his profile, career and stats.
Profile
The real name of Billy Bowden is Brent Fraser Bowden and he was born on 11th April 1963 in Henderson in New Zealand. He was a very good player himself until he suffered from Rheumatoid Arthritis which stopped his playing career and thus he wanted to become an umpire and the entire cricketing world is grateful to him for making this decision. Billy Bowden was a fan of cricket first of all and he loved umpiring Matches.
Career
He started his umpiring career in 1995 when he officiated an ODI between New Zealand and Sri Lanka and from there the journey just went on. He had to wait 5 years to be officiated as an umpire in a test match and in 2002 finally after all the hard work that he had done , Billy Bowden was included in the Emirates Panel of International Umpires. In 2003 ,he officiated his first World Cup in South Africa and he was also the fourth umpire in the World Cup final in 2003. He was then promoted to the ICC Panel of Elite Umpires and he was a member of this panel till 2013. In 2015 he officiated his last World Cup as an umpire and from then his umpiring career took a dip.
Stats
Format | First Match | Last Match | Total Matches |
Tests | New Zealand vs Australia at Auckland- 2000 | West Indies vs England at Bridgetown- 2015 | 84 Test Matches as an Umpire |
ODIs | New Zealand vs Sri Lanka at Hamilton - 1995 | New Zealand vs Australia at Wellington - 2016 | 200 ODI Matches as an Umpire |
T20IS | New Zealand vs Australia at Auckland- 2005 | New Zealand vs Pakistan at Wellington - 2016 | 24 T20I Matches as an Umpire |
