Colin Egar
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Colin John “Col” Egar (born 30 March 1928 in Malvern, South Australia), was an Australian Test cricket match umpire.
He umpired 29 Test matches between 1960 and 1969. His first match was between Australia and the West Indies at Brisbane on 9 December to 14 December 1960. The game resulted in the first tie in Test match history when Egar’s partner Col Hoy gave Ian Meckiff run out off the second last ball of the final over of the match. Hoy and Egar stood in every match of that most dramatic of all Test series, and the West Indies’ captain Frank Worrell was full of praise for the calm and unobtrusive competence of the umpiring in that tension-filled series.
In the first Test of the 1963/64 series against South Africa at Brisbane on 7 December 1963, Egar, standing at square leg, no-balled Ian Meckiff four times in Meckiff’s first over for ‘throwing’, that is, illegally straightening the bowling arm during its delivery swing. Australian captain, Richie Benaud accepted Egar’s decision and did not bowl Meckiff again in the match, ending his Test career.
Before the second Test of that series, in Meckiff’s home town of Melbourne, a death threat was made against Egar. Police drove him to and from the MCG each day and placed special guards on the umpires’ and players’ rooms.
Egar’s ability and powers of concentration must have been outstanding. During the 1960s he umpired 29 out of 30 Test matches played in Australia.
Egar’s last match, also against the West Indies, was at Sydney on 14 February to 20 February 1969, was won by Australia by 382 runs, after Bill Lawry, the Australian captain, delayed his second-innings declaration until Australia led by 734 runs. In this match Doug Walters became the first batsman to score a double century and a century in the same match, with scores of 242 and 103. Egar’s colleague was Lou Rowan.
Following his umpiring career, Egar turned to cricket administration, managing a number of Australian Test teams, and was the Australian Cricket Board’s chairman from 1989-92. Ironically, in the Australian tour of Pakistan in 1988, Egar protested to the Pakistan Board of Control over the umpiring of Mahboob Shah, following an innings’ loss on a grassless pitch which captain Allan Border described as “a conspiracy from the word go”. Steve Waugh, a member of the team, quotes Egar as claiming “the umpiring is totally unacceptable”. The tour was in danger of being abandoned, but Egar insisted it progress as scheduled.
A public bar at the Adelaide Oval is named the "Col Egar Bar" as a tribute to him.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- Pollard, Jack, Australian Cricket: 1948-1995, The Packer Years. Sydney, The Book Company, 1995.
- Waugh, Steve, Out of My Comfort Zone: the autobiography, Melbourne, Penguin, 2005. (ISBN 0-670-04198-X)
