Continuing with our latest series of articles on cricket umpires today we will talk about probably the best umpire of the last 25 years and my all time favorite umpire in Simon Taufel. He was the name that became a household name as far as umpiring is concerned and he is loved and respected by everybody and his contribution to the sport making it fair and a better watch is unmatched. The fans knew that whenever Simon Taufel is in the middle the decisions will be 99% correct.
Simon Taufel has won the best Umpire of the year for 5 consecutive years from 2004-2008 and he was wanted by ICC for all the major Matches. Simon Taufel had a career spanning 13 years from 1999-2012 about which we will talk about below but I wish he would have stayed for more than 2012 as he could have served the game for so many more years seeing the standards of umpiring going down by the day. Let’s talk about his profile career and stats.
Profile
The full name of Simon Taufel is Simon James Arthur Taufel and he was born in St Leonards which is in New South Wales in Australia. He was born on 21st January 1971 and he was first interested in becoming a player and he even played for the Cammeray Cricket Club as a medium fast bowler. In 1990-1991 he was the leading wicket taker and had the lowest bowling average in the association but his playing career was cut short by a back injury and after that he took umpiring as a career choice.
Also Read | Billy Bowden Profile, Career and Stats
Career
Simon Taufel began his umpiring career in 1995 in the domestic scene when he was just 24 years old and 4 years after he became a very good umpire, he was given his first ODI match as an Umpire in 1999 and it was between Australia and Sri Lanka at SCG when he was 27 years old. Just a year later he umpired his first year match which was between Australia and West Indies at MCG and it was the Boxing Day test match. In 2002 he became a member of the ICC elite panel of Umpires and he was chosen to umpire in the 2003 World Cup. Simon Taufel was unable to officiate a 50 over World Cup final because Australia would reach the final everytime but in 2011, he got the chance at Mumbai when it was India vs Sri Lanka in the World Cup final. He formally announced his retirement after the 2012 T20I World Cup and he could have easily been umpiring today as well.
Stats
Format | First Match as an Umpire | Last Match as an Umpire | Total Matches as an Umpire |
Test Cricket | Australia vs West Indies at MCG - 200/ | England vs South Africa at Lord's - 2012 | 74 |
ODIs | Australia vs Sri Lanka at SCG - 1999 | England vs South Africa at Lord's - 2012 | 174 |
T20IS | Kenya vs New Zealand at Durban - 2007 | Sri Lanka vs West Indies at Colombo- 2012 | 34 |
Also Read: Steve Bucknor Profile Career and Stats
