TNI Bureau: After the World Twenty20 final between Sri Lanka and West Indies on Sunday, Australian Cricket Umpire Simon Taufel (41) bid adieu to umpiring. He was a member of the ICC Elite Umpire Panel since 2003.
Taufel officiated in his last match as an umpire at the R Premadasa Stadium in Sri Lanka. He has conducted 74 Tests, 174 ODIs and 33 T20Is as an umpire during his cricket career that started from 1999.
Taufel had already announced earlier on 26th September that he would retire from cricket after World Twenty20 to become the Umpire Performance and Training Manager with the ICC.
Taufel started his cricket career as a player but had to retire following a back injury and subsequently initiated his cricket career as an umpire in 1995 through first class cricket at the age of 24. He entered to International cricket in 1999 and umpired his maiden international match at the age of 27 and it was an ODI between Australia and Sri Lanka at Sydney played on 13 January 1999. He officiated in his first ICC Cricket World Cup final in April 2011.
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Taufel conducted 74 Tests in all between December 2000 and August 2012 first being the match Australia vs. West Indies in Melboune in 2000 and the latest being the England vs. South Africa at Lord’s in 2012. He umpired 174 ODIs in all between January 1999 to September 2012 first being the match Australia vs. Sri Lanka in Sydney in 1999 and the latest being the England vs. South Africa at the Lord’s in 2012.
He umpired 34 T20Is in all between 2007 to 2012 first being the match Kenya vs. New Zealand in Durban and the latest being the Sri Lanka vs. West Indies at Colombo in Sri Lanka.
Taufel has been named as the top umpire of the year three times. In January 2007 he became the youngest umpire to stand in 100 ODIs. In August 2006 the ICC’s annual umpire review officially ranked Taufel second for accuracy and overall performance. He has created record for being in the list of 5 top umpires to officiate the maximum number of ODIs. While Rudi Koertzen tops this list with 209 ODIs, Taufel is in the fifth position with 172 ODIs.
Taufel had umpired in the final match of the 2011 Cricket World Cup between Sri Lanka and India. He described the semifinal match between India and Pakistan in Mohali in 2011 World Cup to be the most exciting one throughout his umpire career, reported Times of India. He was also one of the victims of the attack in Pakistan on 3rd March 2009.