Simon Taufel is an Australian cricket umpire. He is a member of the ICC’s top umpiring panel. From 2004 to 2008, he won the ICC Referee of the Year award five times in a row. At the time, he was considered the best referee in the world.
Wiki/Biography
Simon James Arthur Taufel was born on Thursday, January 21, 1971, in St Leonards, New South Wales, Australia (52 years old; as of 2023). His zodiac sign is Aquarius. He really enjoyed playing cricket and felt sad when it rained and he couldn’t play. In an interview, he mentioned that he is not the greatest player, but he always tries his best and puts in a lot of effort to keep improving. In June 1990, Taufel was planning to go to college and had no intention of becoming a referee until a friend convinced him to take a refereeing course with him. Even then, he just saw it as a way to make extra money. Interestingly, his friend Dave did not achieve the 85% score required to pass the test, while Taufel performed well and passed easily.
appearance
Height (approximately): 5′11″
Hair Color: Salt and Pepper
Eye color: black
family
Parents and siblings
Simon’s father’s name was James Arthur Taufel.
wife and children
Simon married Helen Taufel.
Simon Taufel and his wife
He has two sons, Harry and Jack, and a daughter, Sophie.
Simon Taufel with his wife and children
Profession
cricket
He led the school’s top cricket team and later played for the NSW under-19 boys team alongside Adam Gilchrist and Michael Slater. He played cricket for North Sydney and Mosman clubs before becoming an umpire. At the age of 20, he began refereeing fifth-grade games. After the 1990-1991 season, he won the club’s highest award for being the best and fairest player. He also took the most wickets and the lowest bowling average in the league that season. He had to retire from cricket due to a back injury.
referee
While he was working as an operations manager for a printing company, he sometimes refereed international matches. In 2003, he was selected as a member of the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Top Umpires Panel. He and New Zealand’s Billy Bowden were thought to be the upcoming umpires at the time. In 1995, at the age of 24, he began his career as a first-level referee. At the age of 27, he became an umpire in One-Day Internationals (ODIs). He umpired the first ODI match between Australia and Sri Lanka on 13 January 1999 in Sydney. In this game, his old teammate Adam Gilchrist scored a hundred points. In December 2000, he umpired his first Test match, the Boxing Day Test match between Australia and West Indies in Melbourne. Surprisingly, he was younger than the 12 players on both teams at the time. In 2002, he became a member of the UAE International ICC Referees Panel. He was selected as an umpire for the 2003 Cricket World Cup. Taufel is a five-time winner of the Referee of the Year award and was ranked second in accuracy in the ICC’s annual referee evaluation in August 2006. He was the referee of the 2004 Champions Trophy final. In the 2006 Champions Cup, he officiated a semi-final, but did not serve as a referee because Australia was participating in the final. In January 2007, he became the youngest umpire to umpire 100 One-Day Internationals (ODIs). In April 2007, he was selected to referee the World Cup semi-final match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka. However, he was unable to referee the final, which involved the Australian team. He made his umpiring debut in a T20 match between Kenya and New Zealand in Durban on 12 September 2007. He umpired alongside Aleem Dar in the 2011 Cricket World Cup final between Sri Lanka and India. The opportunity arose as Australia were eliminated by India in the quarter-finals, so he could umpire the second half of the match. On 26 September 2012, he announced his retirement from international cricket after playing his last match in the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 final in Sri Lanka. From 2000 to 2012, he refereed 74 Test matches. He officiated 174 ODI matches between 1999 and 2012. He also refereed 34 T20I matches between 2007 and 2012.
Other companies
In 2010 he joined the Marylebone Cricket Club Legal Subcommittee. He helps the MCC (the body responsible for the Rules of Cricket) review and improve the Rules of Cricket. From 2013 to 2021, he served as Deputy Chairman of the Southern Highlands PCYC. He works with a team focused on helping local young people and promoting the health and wellbeing of the community. He has chosen to leave the Premier Cricket Umpires Group to take up a new role as Umpire Performance and Training Manager at the International Cricket Federation. He held this position until 2015. He continued as the ICC’s referee performance and training manager until October 2015, when he also resigned from that position. In 2016, he worked with Cricket Australia as Match Referee and Umpire Selection Manager. In 2017, he joined the board and became chairman of the Highland Districts Cricket Association. He leads a team aimed at helping local clubs, players, referees and volunteers. They manage over 400 registered players and provide representation to the Greater Illawarra, New South Wales and Australia. In 2018, he became a partner at Integrity Values Leadership. In 2019, he wrote a book called Finding the Gap, which blended his personal experiences with self-improvement advice.
Simon Taufel’s book “Searching for the Gap”
In 2019, he joined Sport Australia’s Industry Advisory Group. In 2019, he became a Thinkfluencer for Tigerhall in Singapore, Australia and India. In 2020, he became a commentator and expert analyst on Australia’s Channel 7. In 2022, he was appointed Director of Game Ethics and Regulations by the Cricket Legends League. In 2022, he launched an online certification course to address gaps in referee training, development and standards. The course includes three levels of certification: Junior, Level 1 and Level 2. In 2022, he serves as a Primary Club Ambassador. He works to raise funds for underprivileged children and community organizations. In 2023 he served as Patron of the Cricket Umpires Association of New South Wales. He is known for promoting cricket officiating and providing guidance and coaching to boards and members. He was patron of Bowral Cricket Club from 2008 to 2019. In this role, he was responsible for fundraising, ensuring compliance and liaising with other parties to support the club’s non-profit goals. Between 2004 and 2018, he worked as a training specialist with various companies including Emirates Airlines, Birla Institute, Brandix, BCCI, Ceylinco Life and Metso Minerals.
Awards, Honors, Achievements
- 2004-2008: ICC Referee of the Year Award
Simon Taufel wins ICC Referee of the Year Award
- ICC Bail Bronze Award
Facts/Trivia
- He played domestic cricket for Camere Cricket Club in the Northern Suburbs Cricket Association. Simon is a medium pace bowler.
- On March 3, 2009, terrorists attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, Pakistan. Taufail was one of the officials present. The incident shocked the cricketing world and led to the end of Pakistan’s international tour. He mentioned in an interview that the attack had a lasting impact on his life. He added in the interview,
It (the incident) really changed me personally and it changed cricket as well. I think my family is happy to see me sitting here. The phone call my wife and I had that day was a difficult one. “
- He won the ICC Referee of the Year Award for five consecutive years (2004-2008). However, his winning streak ended in October 2009 when Aleem Dar from Pakistan was awarded the ICC Umpire of the Year Award.
- Taufail became the youngest person to receive the ICC Bronze Bail Award. He received this award for umpiring 100 ODIs.
- He was the only umpire invited to deliver the MCC Cricket Cowdray Spirit Lecture.
- In an interview, he mentioned that when he started his career, when bowlers were bowling, he used to lean forward and lower his gaze, similar to what umpires did in the past. However, as he became more confident, he stopped doing this, but he still maintained a strong focus and focus on the game.
- He pointed out in an interview that people often recall referees for the 5% of decisions they made that were wrong, rather than the 95% of decisions they made that were right.
- In 2020, he became part of the Channel 7 commentary team as an expert commentator for the 2020/21 Test series.
- In 2023, he was selected to captain the team of match officials for the first ILT20 tournament, which is scheduled to be held at three venues in the UAE: Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi, Dubai International Stadium and Sharjah Cricket Stadium. The competition was originally scheduled to be held from January 13 to February 12, 2023.
- In 2023, Major League Baseball (MLC) announced that he was listed as one of 11 match officials for the first professional cricket franchise in the United States.
- In an interview, he discussed the possibility of technology replacing referees, saying:
People think the solution to the weird gray area is to replace it with technology. I continue to see referees’ skills and judgment taken away by technology. Referees, like players, progress through the game because you are good at what you do and make the fewest mistakes. I very consciously try to turn the art of officiating into a science and strive for perfection in the decision-making process, no matter what that looks like. “
- In an interview, he recalled how Virender Sehwag stood straight-legged next to him during India’s matches and shouted “out” and “not out” himself. He mentioned that he suggested Sehwag to consider becoming a referee but Sehwag rejected the offer.
Simon Taufel and Virender Sehwag
- Virat Kohli and Dinesh Karthik scored three runs during India’s T20 World Cup 2022 match against Pakistan. However, Pakistan captain Babar Azam and his team questioned whether it should be considered a dead ball. The referee did not declare the ball dead, but the discussion about the dead ball situation became a topic after the game. Simon addressed the controversy in a Twitter post, saying:
After the exciting climax of last night’s India vs Pakistan match at the MCG, many asked me to explain the bye India scored after Kohli was knocked down by a free hit. The umpire made the right call by signaling Bais after the batsman got three runs after the ball hit the stumps and rolled to third man. For a free bat, the striker cannot be bowled out and, therefore, the ball is not dead when it hits the stumps – it is still in play and meets all the conditions under the bye rule. “
- In an interview, he revealed that he keeps a diary, recording the time he gets up and goes to bed, and also records his diet. In the morning, he checks his heart rate and rates his happiness from 1 to 10. He then analyzes these details along with his successful officiating days to find any patterns or insights.
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education