An umpire who resuscitated Umpiring - Simon Taufel

For years, the definition of umpiring was coming to the ground and doing a mechanical job like any other job. Their decisions were always under the scrutiny. Often an umpire had to bear the brunt for being a spoiler, one whose (wrong) decision influenced the result of the game. If a particular decision helped the team of his nationality to win a match, questions were raised about his ethics. An umpire embodied a cognizant, qualified person, but one who was seldom fit.

Simon Taufel was the first umpire who talked about the importance of physical fitness in umpiring. He correlated it with the efficiency in the decision making. It was startling to see Taufel, being at the right position when the ball went anywhere within the 360-degree playing arc. The man sometimes moved as a gazelle, which sure would have embarrassed a player or two. That was Taufel for you – the one who redefined the role of an umpire.

Michael Slater and Adam Gilchrist were his peers when Taufel played junior level cricket in Australia. A back injury forced Taufel to give up his cricketing kit – which one would call a blessing in disguise for the game of cricket.

The old-fashioned umpires used to bend and have their eye-sight in line with the stumps to gauge the leg before decisions accurately. By 1990s the trend had stopped. In the early 2000, an Australian umpire reminded many cricket aficionados, about decision-makers from the yesteryears. The story of Taufel as an umpire was not straight out of a fairy tale. He had his share of criticism. The English Press had called him “Awful Taufel, after he got a couple of decisions wrong. But the press seldom takes into consideration the human side of an Umpire. The pressure of deadlines, the need to get some exclusive story on the table, makes the writers and reporters use some harsh adjectives.

Taufel, being a human would have felt awful, no doubt. But here was a man who was on a mission. He set an unprecedented benchmark for the decision-makers all across the globe. He won the players’ trust. The television commentators used mellifluous metaphors to talk about Taufel’s umpiring skills. There was no doubt that here was a man who had made a huge impact on the game of cricket.

The home umpires were responsible for ordinary decisions in the past. Their motive was to ensure their team won the match and this was a sentiment that was echoed by many former players. The standard of umpiring had reached a nadir. The technological benefits were not harnessed and often an umpiring error was magnified by the same technology. It was against this backdrop ICC decided to appoint the best umpires for the Test Matches. An Elite Panel was formed. Simon Taufel has always been a member of this distinguished panel since its inception.

Taufel won the ICC Umpire of the year on five consecutive occasions, but sadly never got to do a World Cup final till 2011.

Taufel has often seen close encounters on the field with a stoic face. This real-life encounter at Lahore in the year 2009 changed him. He had nervy moments seeing people die in front of his eyes.

Today, sadly, Taufel will adjudicate a game for the last time. There is no change in the way he prepares for a game. The intensity and concentration will be the same as it has been for the last 13 years. But that is the way life goes.

Taufel will now be involved in a new role as the ICC’s Umpire Performance and Training Manager. The batsmen around the world might just be a little jittery, the bowlers might just start shouting a bit more, to get the decision in their favour now that they have a minuscule chance of the decision going their way, since Taufel, a near flawless umpire, would be missing!

Adios Simon! You will be missed.