by Abhishek Mukherjee
Simon Taufel was a fast-medium bowler at Cammeray Cricket Club, the first club to win 25 premierships in the history of Northern Suburbs Cricket Association. They also won four Club Championships. He also opened bowling for NSW Schoolboys in 1988-89, a side that also featured Slater and Gilchrist.
He then took to umpiring at a friends's insistence, and rose through the ranks swiftly. When England toured for the 1994-95 Ashes, he stood in a few tour matches. By 1997-98 he was a TV umpire in international cricket.
The Englishmen were not happy with his after a couple of decisions went against them. They twisted his surname to "too awful".
Fast forward to 2004, when ICC introduced an annual award for umpires. Taufel won it the *first five times*. The media compared him with Federer, who did the same in US Open less than a week before ICC Awards 2007. The response was characteristically Taufel: "Roger earns a lot more money than I do."
Remember, Taufel was forty when he won it for the fifth time. To put things into perspective, Dickie Bird was forty when he made his international debut as umpire.
It was not only about quality of umpiring: Taufel had an excellent rapport with everyone, often sorting out potentially volatile situations with a smile – or, as he did with Mohammad Yousuf at Dunedin in 2009-10, with a joke.
The incorrigible Greg Matthews (jokingly) once tried to offer $100 to Taufel in exchange of a decision. The response was prompt: "Greg, it would take me more than $100 to turn a decision in your favour that you don’t deserve."
Senior umpire Daryl Harper made an error in the Dambulla Test of 2003, to his own peril: "His glare at the end of the day made me feel like a schoolboy being dealt with by his principal. I told him I had used common sense instead of referring to the laws and copped the blame, agreeing that my initiative was not universally acceptable. I made sure I never used that interpretation again."
Taufel extended his professionalism during his tenure at the seminars for the ICC's Elite Panel of Umpires, where he was respected by his senior colleague. So detailed and vivid was Taufel in discussions that the seminars became known as Simonars.
Neutral umpires also meant more travel, as a result of which Taufel worked on his fitness, perhaps more than any of his predecessors, adjusting seamlessly to different time zones and formats. He also prepared well in ahead. He researched on cities, hotels, conditions, the ground, the curator, average time needed for the ground to dry, efficiency of the ground staff and the Super Sopper, and more, well in advance. He checked video footage of the teams and players to form an idea of what was in store.
And then, once there, he was invariably there at the nets, practising with the teams.
Taufel made an error once every 28 decisions – or, in other words, a success rate of 96.4%. ICC's estimate for their elite panel is 92%.
Simon Taufel, arguably the greatest umpire of the modern era, was born on January 21, 1971.