Steve Randell

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Stephen Grant Randell, (born 19 February 1956 in Hobart, Tasmania), is a former Australian Test cricket match umpire, the first to come from Tasmania.

He umpired 36 Test matches between 1984 and 1998 the highest number by an Australian umpire to that time. (The previous highest was Tony Crafter’s 33 matches.). His first match was between Australia and the West Indies at Melbourne on 22 December to 27 December 1984, a drawn match with Australia holding on in the final innings, thanks to a determined century by Andrew Hilditch to deny the West Indies a 12th consecutive Test victory. Randell’s partner was Peter McConnell.

In 1994 the International Cricket Council introduced a policy of appointing one umpire to each Test match from a non-participating country. Ten of Randell’s matches were played outside Australia, and did not involve Australia. His last Test match involving Australia was against South Africa at Adelaide on 30 January to 3 February 1998, a drawn match in the visitor’s favour, with captain Mark Taylor dominating the first innings with 169 and Mark Waugh scoring a century in the second innings. Randell’s colleague was the New Zealander, Doug Cowie. In this match, Mark Waugh was controversially given not out when his bat brushed the stumps and dislodged a bail, the umpire ruling that he had completed his shot.

Randell’s last Test match was between Zimbabwe and Pakistan at Harare on 21 March to 25 March 1998. Randell umpired 88 One Day International (ODI) matches between 1984 and 1998. He umpired one women’s ODI in 1991. Altogether, he umpired 119 first-class matches in his career between 1980 and 1998.

At the club level, Randell was a left-hand batsman for the South Hobart and Sandy Bay clubs. Off the field he was a school-teacher with the Tasmanian Education Department. His cricket and professional careers ended when he was convicted in August 1999 of 15 separate counts of sexual assault against nine schoolgirls between 1981 and 1982.

He was sentenced to four years jail with a two year minimum, but was paroled in May 2002 and is now living in Binalong Bay. He runs a cafe in St Helens, Tasmania.