Top Umpire

[Tim]

Who is everyones top umpire, or even top 3 umpires at the moment?...its safe to say that Asoka & Daryl Harper won't be up there.

 

[Mister Wright]

Steve Tauffel (sp)
Billy Bowden
David Shepard

are the three IMO that are the best.

 

[iamdavid]

Asoka De Silva
Daryl Harper
Russel Tiffin


For real I'd say
Simon Tauffel
Steve Bucknor (1 bad decision wont change that)
David Shepard

Bowden is generally a pretty good umpire , but his 'entertaining' signals kinda pi*s me off , dont ask why

 

[Mister Wright]

Bowden is generally a pretty good umpire , but his 'entertaining' signals kinda pi*s me off , dont ask why

I will - why?

 

[Tim]

I've recently got to see a bit of Dave Orchard from S.A & I don't think he's that crash hot either.

 

[age_master]

taufel
Bowden
Shepard
Bucknor


its also good to see 2 younger umpires (the top 2) up there with the best

 

[Craig]

Tiffin is a idiot.

 

[luckyeddie]

Simon Taufel
Steve Bucknor
Billy Bowden
Shep
Venkat

All have their own air of unflappable calmness about them (all right - in Billy and Shep's case a flappable hysteria) and this gets across to the players.

You could easily add Peter Willey to that list - he'll be back on the elite panel when he wants to be.

I think that Taufel is the best umpire I have ever seen (and I go back a long time)

 

[Sudeep]

1. Steve Bucknor
2. Rudi Koertzen
3.

Yep, leaving the third empty... cuz can't decide between Billy Bowden, David Shepherd and S Venkataraghvan...

Surprising no one mentioned Venkat... He probably has lost some credibility lately, but he is still supposed to be from the top drawer...

 

[V Reddy]

Simon Taufel
Billy Bowden
Aleem Dar

Although Dar didn't do that well in Srl-Eng series , he was very very good in the previous matches he umpired in. I think Venkat and Shep have lost it a bit in the last year or so.

 

[Adamc]

Taufel for me too. Venkat is v. good as well, seems to make good decisions almost lazily...

Interesting watching some old footage (pre-60's maybe) to notice that many, if not most, umpires adopted a crouched stance with hands on knees, whereas current umpires usually stand straight. I read something recently which suggested that an umpire with his eyes at stump height is more accurately able to adjudge lbw's (in terms of height) than umpires standing straight. Does anyone know why and when this change (umpires stance) occured?

 

[bennyr]

Steve Bucknor
Shep
Venkat

I think Bowden is generally good, but is too stingy on LBW's to be considered top shelf (at least that's what I've observed this series.) I don't get to see enough of Taufel these days to really rate him.

 

[Jono]

Bowden's brilliant decision regarding Chopra in the 4th test has me won.

1) Shepherd
2) Bucknor
3) Bowden

 

[Neil Pickup]

1 Taufel
2 Bucknor
3 Bowden

 

[luckyeddie]

Simon Taufel
Billy Bowden
Aleem Dar

Although Dar didn't do that well in Srl-Eng series , he was very very good in the previous matches he umpired in. I think Venkat and Shep have lost it a bit in the last year or so.

Darned right - I totally forgot about Aleem Dar.
Finally, I don't wake up at night shivering and thinking about Shakoor Rana when someone mentions 'umpire' and 'pakistan' in the same breath.

I actually thought that Aleem Dar was quite superb for the most part in the Sri Lanka v England series - he certainly isn't one to be swayed by all this 'running towards the umpire' shenanigans when appealing.

 

[luckyeddie]

Taufel for me too. Venkat is v. good as well, seems to make good decisions almost lazily...

Interesting watching some old footage (pre-60's maybe) to notice that many, if not most, umpires adopted a crouched stance with hands on knees, whereas current umpires usually stand straight. I read something recently which suggested that an umpire with his eyes at stump height is more accurately able to adjudge lbw's (in terms of height) than umpires standing straight. Does anyone know why and when this change (umpires stance) occured?

When they started putting Chiropractors in the Yellow Pages

 

[Hero_Don]

1. Bowden
2.Buckenor
3. Shepard

 

[Pratters]

Venkat was the best umpite followed by Shephard and Bucknor but all the three have been doing some bad decisions lately. I support some sort of ratings by captians ont he umpires after each meatch (say on a scale of 1 to 5) with the umpires not being good enough removed.

Currently I would say

Simon Taufel
Billy Bowden
The Zimbabwe umpire.. I forgot his name

 

[marc71178]

Bring back Shakoor Rana!

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

In order...

1/ Bucknor - so good for so long
2/ Taufel - very solid despite making a couple of big mistakes against WI in the 2nd Test WI v SA
3/ Shep - see Bucknor

Pratyush, would that Zimbabwean umpire be Ian Robinson?