Simon Taufel

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Simon James Arthur Taufel, (born 21 January 1971 in St Leonards, New South Wales), is a current international cricket umpire and a member of the ICC Elite umpire panel, from New South Wales.

Taufel has stood in 38 Test matches. His first match was between Australia and West Indies at Melbourne on 26 December to 29 December 2000, won by Australia by 352 runs with only Steve Waugh scoring a century in a steady batting performance, but Jason Gillespie, Andy Bichel and Colin Miller twice bundling the visitors out cheaply. Taufel’s partner was Indian umpire Srinivas Venkataraghavan.

Since 2002 both umpires in Test matches have been appointed from non-participating nations, by the International Cricket Council. 30 of Taufel’s Test matches have been played outside Australia and did not involve Australia. His only other Test match involving Australia was against South Africa at Adelaide on 14 December to 18 December 2001, won by Australia by 246 runs, with Justin Langer, Matthew Hayden and Damien Martyn scoring centuries, and Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath taking 8 and 6 wickets respectively. Wisden (2003 ed., pp.1246-8) reported that Brett Lee bowled four consecutive bouncers “of escalating viciousness” against tail-end batsmen “while umpire Taufel remained mute”. Taufel’s colleague was again Venkataraghavan.

To date, Taufel has umpired 98 one-day international (ODI) matches since 1999. Altogether, he has umpired 59 first-class matches since 1995.

[edit] Awards

In 2004, 2005 and 2006, Taufel won the ICC Award for Umpire of the Year awards. He also was named the best umpire by Cricket Australia for the 2005/6 season, and has won the NSW Annual Sports Award twice.