Last Updated on 4 years ago by Charbel Coorey
Cricket News: Reactions to umpiring legend Rudi Koertzen tragically passing away | Rudi Koertzen passed away after a car accident
Eminent South African umpire Rudi Koertzen passed away in a car crash near Riversdale in the Western Cape Town Province on Tuesday. The 73-year-old was one of the only three umpires to have officiated in more than 100 Test matches.
Overall, he stood in 250 One Day Internationals (ODIs), 19 T20Is along with 127 Tests. He was one of the two on-field umpires in 108 of those Test matches. Koertzen hung his boots at the age of 61 in 2010 and shared a very warm repertoire with several greats of the game.
Twitter reactions to the sad news that Rudi Koertzen passed away
Tributes flew in aplenty as the news of his untimely demise broke out on Tuesday evening.
Koertzen first officiated an international game during India’s tour to South Africa in 1992. In 1997, he became a full-time umpire with the ICC. Five years later, in 2002, he was promoted to the ICC Elite Panel of Umpires.
He was one of the earliest inductees to that coterie of top-notch officiators of the game. Koertzen was the on-field umpire during the rain-ridden finale of the 2007 Cricket World Cup between Australia and Sri Lanka. The Test match between Australia and Pakistan at Leeds in 2010 was the last international game that he officiated in.
Koertzen was widely regarded to be a highly-opiniated individual who never held back his words at least on important cricketing matters. He had a very vicious view of the Decision Review System (DRS), as revealed by Telford Vice in an article in Cricbuzz.
“Today umpires are too slack to stand on their own two feet and make their own decisions. For almost everything they do they go upstairs. It’s a disgrace. I can’t handle it. Imagine what happens when an umpire who has been standing in Tests with DRS has to stand in a first-class game with no television coverage and no third umpire. How will he make a decision? He will be too scared. There will be nobody to help him,” Koertzen had told Vice in an interview from back in the days.
CricBlog pays its heartfelt condolences to Rudi Koertzen’s family and friends in this tough hour. The iconic umpire will be revered and respected by the cricketing community for years to come.
