9 Little known facts about Umpire Simon Taufel

9 Little known facts about Umpire Simon Taufel: Simon James Arnold Taufel, one of the greatest umpires of his time, umpired once again in the game of legends All Stars T20 Series. Truly he was also an umpiring legend of his time and years to come. Here are some facts on Simon Taufel:

1. Birth

Simon Taufel was born on January 21, 1971, in Sydney in the state of New South Wales

2. Cricketing Career

Simon Taufel started his cricketing career as a fast bowler. He played for the Cammeray Cricket club in the Northern Suburbs Cricket Association. In the 1990-91 season, he was the leading wicket-taker but due to a back injury his cricketing career was cut short

3. Umpiring

Simon Taufel never was interested in taking up umpiring as a profession. He joined the umpiring exam in 1995 along with his friend. Who knew then, that Simon Taufel would become one of the legendary umpires the World would ever see.

4. Debut Umpiring

He umpired in his first Test at a very young age of 29 at Melbourne in a boxing day match between Australia and West Indies between December 26^th and 29^th, 2000.

His first ODI as an umpire was in Sydney between Australia and Sri Lanka on January 13^th, 1999.

His first T20 he oversaw as an umpire was Kenya vs New Zealand on September 12^th, 2007 in Durban during the 2007 T20 World Cup.

5. Awards and Recognitions

Simon Taufel was the ICC umpire of the year from 2004-2008. This was the first five years from when this award was instituted. In 2009, his streak was broken by Aleem Dar from Pakistan.

Simon Taufel was also awarded the ICC’s Bronze Bails Award for umpiring in 100 ODI’s. He was the youngest person who has ever achieved this accolade.

6. His dream

Simon Taufel always had a dream to umpire in a final of an ODI Cricket World Cup. But due to the laws always asking for a neutral umpire to stand in a World cup match, he was unable to do so as in 1999, 2003 and in 2007, Australia was in the finals of the CWC. His dream at last came true at the cost of the success of the Australian team in the 2011 World Cup when the finals was between India and Sri Lanka.

7. Attack on the Sri Lankan Team

In 2009, when terrorists attacked the Sri Lankan team in their tour to Pakistan, Simon Taufel was one of the officials who was caught in the attack. Thankfully, he escaped without any injuries.

8. Last match as an umpire

His last match as an umpire was the final of the 2012 T20 Cricket World Cup between Sri Lanka and West Indies.

9. After retiring as an on-field umpire

After the 2012 T20 World Cup, Taufel stepped down from the cricket’s elite panel of umpires to take over a new role as the ICC’s Umpire Performance and Training Manager.