Steve Bucknor - The "Slow Death"

I watched Steve Bucknor during the 1992 World Cup,Australia from that time onwards i have some sort of a likeness towards his personality both on and off the field. He and Shepherd are the two old fashioned umpires who always believed in their own judgment. Indians have a different look on him since he gave few wrong verdicts against them.The one wrong verdict which i considered worst by Bucknor was the LBW decision against Sachin in Australia.

He is referred as Slow Death Bucknor because of his way of giving out.He used to take lot of time to decide, his typical slow reaction will stay in my memory forever.

He told once "I have made mistakes and this is a part of life,How you see things at that time, you rule on it. So I do not regret making mistakes because if I regret making mistakes then I am going to regret being a human being." another time "I believe if you are correct 95% of the time it's seen to be okay, which means 19 out of 20 correct. So you try your best to be correct every time. But there are times when things happen that you don't see, you don't know, and mistakes are made."


Umpiring is a tough job that too in this technological world.we have all the replies ,slow motion,tracker everything,so as a viewer we tend to judge everything most of the time correctly also.Bucknor told "Even commentators who think that they know so much about cricket, they are so critical of umpires. Some of them [say], no that is wrong, but this is after they have seen 10 replays. The job is a difficult one, and sometimes made more difficult by the comments from these personalities on television and radio." I dont think technology can replace an on-field umpires any time soon.we have to respect the umpires decisions.

The three umpires i like most are Shepherd,Bucknor and Simon Toufel. Shepherd retired some years ago.now its the time for Bucknor join his friend.


Bucknor's last Test match as umpire will be at Capetown,Australia Vs South Africa and his last Limited Over International will be at Carribean Islands on March 27&29,WestIndies Vs England.

Have a great retired life Mr.Bucknor!!

for his profile:http://content.cricinfo.com/ci/content/player/51237.html

Officiated : 128 tests

Some of his favorites:
Batsman : Viv Richards
Ground :Lords
Bowlers :Shane warne,McGrath and Ambrose
Colleague:Shepherd