Simon Taufel: The fresh-faced wonder among umpires

Simon Taufel won the ICC Award for Umpire of the Year from 2004 to 2008.

There was an era when umpiring used to be for glum-faced men with a cricket career behind them. In other words, umpiring was for the seniors of the sport. Breaking through to the role of the judge in white headgear was not for cheery youngsters. Simon James Arnold Taufel, born January 21, 1971, changed that notion, breaking through to international cricket, no less, at a mere 27, and reaching the summit in his thirties, winning the ICC Award for Umpire of the Year five times in a row since its initiation without cricketers, critics, or fans raising an eyebrow. Abhishek Mukherjee looks back at the genius who defied the supremacy of age in umpiring.

Jim Phillips called Ernie Jones and Arthur Mold for chucking, and was still good enough to stand in Tests in Australia, England, and South Africa.

Arthur Dolphin’s experience in Egypt in the Great War enabled him to stand in the heat for hours without a hat. The Umpire without a hat, they called him.

George Hele was popular and insightful, and conducted the Bodyline series with authority seldom seen in international cricket.

Frank Chester’s loss of an arm did not stop him from returning to the field in the trademark black hat. The artificial arm was more than enough for him to be acknowledged as one of the greatest umpires.

Syd Buller was so strict that poor Geoff Griffin had to bowl underarm to simply complete an over, which as good as brought his international career to an end. Buller also died on-field while officiating.

Col Egar was so outspoken and bold that he received death threats on phone (“get the Kennedy treatment” were the exact words) and had to request for police protection.

Swaroop Kishen was oblong and obdurate, and put to rest the ill-reputation of Asian umpires during his illustrious career.

Rudi Koertzen was authoritative and dignified, but it was more about that tell-tale finger that ominously brought many a blossoming innings to an end.

Steve Bucknor was experienced and controversial, and often excruciatingly slow to raise his finger, if he deemed so.

David Shepherd was rotund and loveable, and was found hopping on one leg (despite the bulk), whenever a side reached a multiple of 111.

Billy Bowden is idiosyncratic and eccentric, and seduces television cameras to focus on him whenever he signalled a wicket or a six or referred to the third umpire.

Aleem Dar keeps proving cricketers wrong time and again with his pinpoint accuracy, often pushing DRS into irrelevance.

And then, there was Dickie Bird, easily the most popular of them all, winning over many a heart on the ground and spinning many a yarn off it, in bestsellers or otherwise.

All of them were big names. All of them had carved out images of their own. There was, however, one thing that connected them all: none of them (barring Chester, of course — perhaps the greatest umpire of the 20th century) were exactly what you call young — unlike Simon Taufel, the finest umpire of the 21st century.

Till 2003 there was no well-defined way to evaluate umpires, and one had to rely on eye-witnesses and former cricketers. When ICC introduced an annual award in 2004, not only did Taufel win it in the inaugural edition, but he also went on to clinch it the next four times. Such was the chasm between him and the others.

Taufel was not even forty when he won it for the fifth time. To put things into perspective, Bird was forty when he made his international debut as umpire.

Just like Bird, Taufel maintained an excellent relationship with players. Watching Taufel conduct a match was an exercise in itself. So often did he turn a potentially volatile situation into a friendly one with a smile, handle a disgruntled bowler as he went back to his run-up, or firmly yet politely talk to the non-striker. And everything invariably ended in a pleased, infectious smile.

Ask Greg Matthews, who had once tried to (jokingly) dished out $100 to Taufel, asking for a favourable decision in return. Taufel responded with “Greg, it would take me more than $100 to turn a decision in your favour that you don’t deserve.” He managed to solve the matter without being rude.

Ask Mohammad Yousuf, who he calmed down with a joke in the Dunedin Test of 2009-10.

And then, there was the way with which Taufel handled his seniors. Daryl Harper wrote on ESPNCricinfo about an error he (Harper) made at Dambulla in 2003: “Simon was not officiating that day, but his glare at the end of the day made me feel like a schoolboy being dealt with by his principal. I told him I had used common sense instead of referring to the laws and copped the blame, agreeing that my initiative was not universally acceptable. I made sure I never used that interpretation again.”

Rising through the ranks

 Born in St Leonard’s, a suburb on the lower North Shore of Sydney, Taufel took to sport like most Australian boys of his age. A fast-medium bowler, Taufel was a regular for Cammeray Cricket Club in the Northern Suburbs Cricket Association (NSCA). This was no mean feat, for Cammeray CC was the first to 25 premierships in the history of NSCA. They also won four Club Championships.

As per Bryrdon Coverdale, Taufel opened bowling for New South Wales Schoolboys. His side was led by Michael Slater, and featured Adam Gilchrist. That was 1988-89.

In 1990-91 Taufel won the Best and Fairest award. While this is somewhat similar to Player of the Season (or Year), there is an added criterion: the player needs to have maintained excellent conduct throughout the season (or year). In other words, the winner had to be someone who represented conduct as well as pedigree.

That does sound like Taufel.

Taufel took up umpiring at the insistence of a friend. He eventually did the course at New South Wales (NSW) Cricket Umpires’ Association. That season he appeared in Grade Five matches.

From 1993-94 he stood in Second XI matches. When England toured for the 1994-95 Ashes, he stood in a couple of matches involving England XI and Australian Cricket Academy.

He had his fair share of mentors. As he told ESPNCricinfo, during this phase he was guided by Allan Marshall and Ted Wykes. Others, like Darrell Hair, Dick French, Ian Thomas, and Arthur Watson, would follow.

On February 3, 1994, Taufel stood in a Mercantile Mutual match between NSW and Western Australia. On debut he managed to award Wayne Andrews eight off a single ball. Andrews played Trevor Bayliss behind point, and Gavin Robertson and substitute Rodney Davison gave chase, during which their caps flew off their head. Robertson retrieved and threw the ball, only to hit one of the caps. By then the batsmen had run three, and Western Australia were awarded eight.

“Too awful”

Taufel started as an international TV umpire in 1997-98. The Englishmen were not happy with his performance. There was a close catch that he ruled in the favour of the Australians, and did not rule Michael Slater run out — a decision England thought should have gone their way.

David Lloyd, England coach on that tour, later recollected in his autobiography Last in the Tin Bath: “He [Slater] appeared a couple of inches short, but when Steve Dunne turned to television adjudication for the decision, instead of confirming that Slater was out, Taufel pressed the button to suggest he was in.”

Note: Lloyd’s book came out after Taufel’s retirement. Lloyd was generous in praise, calling Taufel “perhaps the best [umpire] we have ever seen,” while calling the error ‘poor’.

Marcus Berkmann, however, had a slightly different version in Ashes To Ashes: 35 Years of Humiliation (And About 20 Minutes of Ecstasy) Watching England V. Australia: “Taufel had three camera views on which to make his judgement, but Peter Such, the bowler, obscured the most important one, so he felt he had to give it not out.”

Thanks to his surname, Taufel earned the moniker “too awful”. Eyebrows were raised over his quality. By 2003 he would be officiating in the NatWest Series in England; the Mother Nation, having groomed the best of umpires, hailed Taufel among the best.

Rise to the top

Taufel first ‘stood’ in an international match in the Carlton & United Series of 1998-99. Eleven of the twenty-two players (six Australians, five Sri Lankans) playing the match were older than the 27-year old Taufel. Some others were born the same year as him.

The coveted Test ‘hat’ came in the Boxing Day Test of 1999-00 against West Indies. Australia won by a whopping 352 runs, but the Test was a historic one, for Ridley Jacobs equalled the world record by taking 7 catches in the first innings.

ICC’s Elite Panel of Umpires was yet to be established, and payment for young umpires was sparse. Taufel worked as Operations Manager in a printing firm during this period.

It took him four years to rise up the ladder. In 2002-03 Australian Cricket Board (ACB) added him to their National Panel; he was also inducted into ICC’s Elite Panel of Umpires the same year. The following year he would win the inaugural ICC Award for Umpire of the Year. The journey was seamless.

Despite his age, Taufel was immensely respected by his colleagues at the panel irrespective of their age or experience. Harper wrote in ESPNCricinfo: “In Elite Panel seminars, Simon guided discussions on laws and playing conditions with painstaking attention to detail and thorough preparation. His involvement was so complete that I introduced a new word into our umpiring vernacular. Seminars became known as ‘Simonars’.”

Unlike their 20th-century counterparts, Taufel’s era demanded more travel across time zones, and more cricket round the year. While salaries went up, so did workload. The profession became more demanding, what with number of matches and tournaments increasing with every passing year, and concepts like rest day disappearing from the scenario.

Fitness, thus, became more important than ever, as was unwavering concentration. As was expected of a man meticulous in every aspect of life, Taufel lived up to the challenge of adjusting to time zones, to switching between the three versions, to handling mercurial temperaments, and to make the constant switch from checking the front-foot no-ball to the outcome for bowlers hurling them at over 140 kmph or to be able to judge close bat-pad decisions amidst the noise in packed stadiums.

And then, with improvement in technology and advent of DRS, umpires started to get scrutinised more severely by cricketers, commentators, experts (armchair or otherwise), and fans. Getting away with errors were not easy anymore. Umpires had to live up to expectations of fans ready to react at the slightest error.

As he has mentioned in multiple interviews, Taufel followed a regime, involving fitness trainings and check-lists (which included what to pack); thorough research on cities, hotels, and conditions; knowledge of the ground, including research on the curator, average time needed for the ground to dry, efficiency of the ground staff and Super Sopper, and more; checking video footage of the teams and players to form an idea of what was in store; and that was merely a part of the Taufel formula.

He always arrived in the city with time in hand, and turned up at the nets. Michael Vaughan reminisced in his autobiography Time to Declare: “Australia’s Simon Taufel is about the best I’ve come across and I like his work ethic, whereby he keeps fit and turns up at practice a day before.”

An awestruck Rahul Bhattacharya wrote in Pundits from Pakistan, narrating his sighting of the man during India’s Pakistan tour of 2004: “He represented a new, young breed of umpire, a welcome development because eyesight and reflexes do slow with age even for skilled and honest men. He worked hard at his physical fitness, and cut, a quite contrasting figure on the field to his colleague here, David Shepherd. It was common to find Taufel standing at net sessions, ‘practising’ his umpiring. By his own assessment he made an error every twenty-eight decisions, which, if we are to accept, would give him a strike-rate of 96.4 per cent, whereas the ICC’s estimate for their elite panel taken together is 92. Most players would not dispute the gulf.”

There were also the ever-changing laws to handle with. Taufel was there when they introduced the Powerplay and played around with it; when they introduced T20, T20I, and franchise-based T20; when they brought in and did away with the Supersub; and more. Taufel, forever the professional, kept himself updated by revising 6 to 7 laws a day. One must keep in mind that laws in cricket changed in Taufel’s era more frequently than they did in the 1900s.

But Taufel emerged on top, amidst everything, and continued to rule the world of cricket. Hair and Billy Doctrove were the officials when Pakistan famously conceded the Test at The Oval in 2006. It caused quite a furore, but Taufel came out in support of Hair and Doctrove, and was hardly criticised for his stance — for despite his age (he was in his mid-30s then), he was the supreme voice on such matters.

Taufel told The Sydney Morning Herald: “The Darrell Hair I know calls the game the way he sees it without fear or favour. He knows the laws better than anyone. They can inform them that they should go on to the field, then if they still refuse, they can inform them that the match will be awarded to the opposing team. Umpires have to follow the laws as they are written, so it’s hard to fault the umpires in this case. The disappointing thing is that the spirit of cricket has taken a hit over this.”

When Taufel was named ICC Umpire of the Year fourth time in a row, media compared him with Roger Federer, who did the same in US Open less than a week before ICC Awards 2007. The response was prompt: “Roger earns a lot more money than I do.”

“Stepping down”

Taufel continued till IPL 2013. One would have expected him to choose a grander stage to bow out of cricket, but by then he was taking it season by season, and had made up his mind to choose family — his wife and three daughters — over cricket.

Earlier, his profession brought him close to death in 2009, when terrorists opened fire on the minivan that was carrying him, Steve Davis, Nadeem Ghauri (third umpire), and Chris Broad (match referee) to Gaddafi Stadium. He survived, but Zafar Khan, the driver, was shot in the heart and was killed immediately. It took a stranger to drive them to safety.

The incident had changed his perspective. He told Wisden: “He was simply taking some people to a Test match, and then his wife and children lose [sic] him for ever. That is just not fair. There were lessons for cricket to learn that day, sure, but for me it was about more than that. Life and families are precious.”

Earlier, he had ‘moved on’ from the ICC Elite Panel of Umpires in 2012 (as Ali Martin mentioned in Wisden, “Simon Taufel does not like the word ‘retirement’”).

In all, Taufel officiated in 74 Tests, 174 ODIs, and 34 T20Is (in addition to 13 Tests, 46 ODIs, and 8 T20Is as third umpire). The tally of 282 international matches puts him at fifth place, after Koertzen (331), Dar (314), Bucknor (309), and Bowden (305).

Note: Dar and Bowden are active at the time of writing this article.

His one wish of umpiring in a World Cup final almost did not come true, for Australia won the first three editions of the tournament since Taufel’s retirement. He finally got a chance in 2011, alongside Dar, the other great umpire of the generation.

When asked about his favourite decision, Taufel told Wisden of ruling Inzamam-ul-Haq obstructing the field at Peshawar in 2005-06, and an incident from 2009 World T20 at Trent Bridge. In the latter, Ramnaresh Sarwan smashed one off Ajantha Mendis to long-on; Angelo Mathews caught it, went over the line with the momentum but threw it up in the air, and jumped up to slap it back volleyball-style. After numerous replays and discussions, Taufel, Bowden, and third umpire Ian Gould concluded that Mathews had indeed saved three runs.

ICC created a position after his retirement — that of Umpire Performance and Training Manager — and Taufel was recruited immediately. The honour of delivering the MCC Spirit of Cricket Colin Cowdrey Lecture in 2013 was also bestowed upon Taufel.

In 2015 BCCI appointed Taufel to train Indian umpires to find a solution to the lack of Indian representatives in the Elite Panel since the retirement of Srinivas Venkataraghavan.

When Cricket All-Stars Series was launched in 2015-16 to promote cricket in USA, Taufel was named one of the three umpires, to nobody’s surprise. What other option did they have?

(Abhishek Mukherjee is the Chief Editor at CricketCountry and CricLife. He blogs here and can be followed on Twitter here.)

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