Ross Emerson

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Ross Alexander Emerson (born February 26, 1954) was an international cricket umpire from Australia who is best known for calling Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan for chucking. He also played grade cricket for Petersham-Marrickville in the Sydney grade cricket competition. He is the brother-in-law of former Australian swing bowler Terry Alderman.

After making his first-class umpiring debut in the 1982-83 season, Emerson was promoted to the National Umpires panel in 1993-94. He made his ODI debut in a match between Sri Lanka and the West Indies in Brisbane in January, 1996. He immediately became controversial, no-balling Muralitharan seven times, and continuing to do so even when he switched to bowling legbreaks, which are regarded as being impossible to throw. This led to Muralitharan being dropped by Sri Lanka for the rest of the tour, as he was unable to bowl without being called. Emerson continued to officiate in ODIs for the next three years, standing in nine more games, all in Australia, but it was his last game which overshadowed even the first.

Standing at square leg, Emerson once again called Muralitharan, leading to Sri Lankan captain Arjuna Ranatunga to lead his team off the field in protest and consult team management and the match referee. The match later continued, with Muralitharan confined to bowling legbreaks. Later, Emerson claimed that cricket was controlled by Asia, which was somewhat ironic that Sri Lanka had won the game after Mahela Jayawardene was ruled not-out by Emerson's naked eye, even though he would have been shown to be clearly out by the video umpire. Jayawardene went on the score a century.

Emerson was subsequently stood down, and then was not reappointed to officiate again. He subsequently retired from cricket, and as of November 2004, is the president of Swimming Western Australia. However, he remained defiant, saying that Muralitharan's action was worse than ever. However, the respected cricket commentator Peter Roebuck labelled Emerson a nincompoop.